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When you meet Hiromi Tango it is difficult to separate the person from her work. She (it—the art) is energetic, insightful, gregarious, generous. Yet her works are not altogether about her—Tango’s presence within projects has at times been evasive, even absent. Her focus is directed firmly toward us. She is earnest in pointing out that we, positioned as audience-collaborators, may continue ‘working’ without her, and even after a project is complete. On the other hand, the practice is about Tango (is her … is of her) inasmuch as it begins with her and implies her presence (or absence), movements and encounters.
Tango has titled her latest project Mother. This is an apt metaphor as there is a strong motherliness about the work, and about Tango herself. She creates and nurtures communities by instigating connections between people, meanwhile her own identity can be somewhat effaced. She regularly gifts food, massages and clothing to strangers (who then become friends, or at least acquaintances). It is an idealistic practice, to be sure. However, the potential for too much ‘warm and fuzziness’ is countered by the works’ certain rawness, the organic way in which they develop in response to their surrounds, and the unpredictable ways in which ‘participants’ become involved. Tango’s practice inquires of the fundamentals of human relations: in what ways do we encounter each other and what are the possibilities for meaningful connections to be made? These can be as unsatisfying and shallow as much as they can be intimate and motherly.
As for Mother, this project was started between October and November 2007. It was based around the idea of the home, of generosity and sacrifice. It