THE ARTISTS

HIROMI TANGO

Hiromi Tango is a Japanese-Australian artist whose work spans sculpture, drawings, photography, installation and performance. Hiromi is dedicated to generate healing conversations through arts engagement. Reacting to an age in which human relationships are being eclipsed by the globalisation and virtualisation of communication, the artist’s practice is often collaborative, performative and site-specific. Her immersive installations comprise vibrant sculptural accumulations of donated objects, materials and stories. They become mnemonic traces of feelings and interactions, and the ensuing catalysis of emotion and recognition forms the affective crux of her art. In this way, although Tango’s works are highly personal and autobiographical, they can also be read as universal tropes of collective experience.


Over recent years, her practice has become increasingly focused on exploring neuroscientific concepts through arts engagement, posing questions around neuroplasticity, empathy and epigenetics in her quest to effect healing and well-being through arts. Often using metaphors from nature to represent brain processes, her works develop through a combination of research, reflection and ritual. Whilst Tango’s practice is grounded in a fascination with scientific discovery, she remains steadfast in her role as an artist being one of constant questioning and blurring boundaries, the ability to ask ‘what if?’ without the scientific proof. Personal experiences – whether her own or those of community participants — drive her exploration of specific ideas and areas of research, such as dementia and aging, child development or traumatic emotional experiences. In this way, her work creates a bridge between scientific concepts and individual realities.