About
Maiko Tsutsumi
Thingness is a quality that evokes in me, the sense of grounded presence — quiet yet alive. My multi-faceted practice promotes this quality through the practice of making, writing, curating, and mentoring.
About me — Maiko Tsutsumi
I studied and apprenticed in woodworking and Japanese lacquer work in Kyoto in the 1990s before moving to London to study furniture design at the Royal College of Art. I later completed a PhD, The Poetics of Everyday Objects at Kingston University while working in the furniture and product design industry. In 2008, I took on the course leader role for MA Designer Maker at Camberwell College of Arts, University of the Arts London, which I ran until 2020.
The underlining principle of my practice — making, research, curating, teaching and facilitating — is rooted in the culture of craftsmanship I experienced during my training in woodworking and Japanese lacquer work in Kyoto, Japan. Predating these trainings, frequent visits to the collection of ethnological objects at the National Museum of Ethnology in Osaka made a profound impact on me. The collection introduced me to the world of tools, ornaments, instruments, that are, deeply connected to how people live in ways specific to their culture and environment. I felt, each thing carried a powerful presence. This experience made an firm impression on me, that the act of tool-making as meaning making, bridging the spheres of humanity and the natural world. It provided the set-point for me when I experience any objects I encounter or create.
My curatorial practice has been a platform for me to share my research process with the students who were developing their own creative practices. The research, which is on-going, has given me an insight into the workings of creative processes specially those that center around the engagement with materials properties/processes and actions. Other areas of my research focus have been: material and human agencies; makers’ mindet and their relationship to tacit knowing; the role of language (textual and speech) and gestures in creative processes.
I continue to explore these themes in broader societal contexts, with a firm belief in the wisdom of conscious engagement with inherent material qualities, and the skills that transform/configure such qualities into meaningful forms.
Please get in touch if you would like to find out more about my work.
I am represented by Corvi-Mora in London, UK.
Contact: info@maikotsutsumi.com