Haruko Okano: Ephemeral Artist & Activist

Process-Based Multidisciplinary Artist Works Directly With Community

May 31, 2009

Art is a powerful media for activism, but as Haruko Okano learned, community outreach is the essential 1st step which determines the form, which artists facilitate.

Haruko Okano is a process-based multidisciplinary artist-activist based in Vancouver with an extensive and profound body of work, who uses her mixed media ephemeral installations to connect with people and to connect those people with others.

"Early on in my career as an artist, I realized that being an artist wasn't enough. My art was nothing unless there were people to interact with it, to see it, touch it, participate in it. It was nothing unless it was part of the community." Okano explained during her April, 2009 Artist's talk at the Touchstones Museum in Nelson, BC. "Then I realized that most people are terrified of us. They are scared we are going to ask them "Well? What do you think of my art?" So they won't go to shows."

Haruku doesn't fit easily into the classification of a sculptor, painter, or mixed media artist, although, from the interactive painting of Quan Shi Yin Pusa "Hands of the Compassionate One" from 1993, it is clear she is accomplished in the traditional art disciplines. Her choice of media depends on what she creates in partnership with the people she works with in a given community, and they are the ones who determine what they want to create. So her artistry comes hand in hand with facilitation.

"This exclusion — this setting apart of artists from the general population — is something which seems only to afflict artists, and that's a big problem. You don't see doctors being excluded from the community in that way. So the next realization was that there is this gap between artists and communities which must be bridged. Well, how do artists go about that?"

Process-Based Multidisciplinary Art-Activism

To bridge the gap, Haruko followed the tradition of artists/activists like those presented in Johannes Birringer's Performance on the Edge. The process opened her to experiences and relationships within various marginalized communities of people — sex trade workers, mail order brides, and indentured servants brought in from impoverished countries, people who have been at the receiving end of racism and the effect of environmental degradation.

"The problem seems to be that most people don't see themselves as creative. They think that creativity is something which artists have and they don't. They don't believe they are creative. I think we are all creative, but my questions were about how artists could engage people — people who aren't artists — in the process of making art, and the obvious answer is to lend to them our creativity and abilities, our way of seeing the world through the artists' eyes.

"So I embarked on a lifetime of experiential learning, which began with a 6-month course with the Department of Justice, and the first thing I learned was: Ask Them!

"You don't tell them what to make. You ask them what they want to say, what they want to make, and then you help them make that real. For that, communication is essential."

A Beleagured East Vancouver Neighbourhood

The first example she cited was a project with the Mount Pleasant Community in beleaguered East Vancouver. The activism project was in defense of a community garden — a humble affair which covered the equivalent of 2 house lots — but which provided fresh, organic food and flowers for 62 different families in as many plots. The city was planning to carve off about a quarter of that to build an alleyway, which would've destroyed the garden.

The Mount Pleasant community is comprised of over 28 different ethnic groups, with about 9 different major language groups. A social worker told the organizers that any successful community work would require communication in at least 7 languages. Professional translators and interpreters were hired. The response was overwhelming. Hundreds of people showed up ranging from several months old to 90-years-old.

Instead of picketing the city, the citizens decided they wanted a positive protest, something which would enrich the community. So they built a picket fence:

Community Ownership and Responsibility for Art

Haruko was particularly emphatic about how children were allowed to express their visions. Instead of working directly on cedar, they were given corrugated cardboard maquettes which they could design using permanent markers. The artists then faithfully replicated their designs down to the last detail within the cedar, with exact care and no embellishment. It turned out that the children's pickets were the most intricate and difficult designs to incorporate.

The drew media attention and sponsors from around the city, the plans to build an alley were called off, and a public gallery agreed to hang the fence-posts in a formal show.

"The first thing which the people did when they went to the opening--well, I can tell you that they did not go straight to the organizers to talk about visions or "what they thought" of the art--no! The first thing they did was look for one they made, their own picket, their own work.

"In order for a project like that to be successful, the community has to feel ownership from conception to completion."

The copyright of the article Haruko Okano: Ephemeral Artist & Activist in Performance Art is owned by Simone Keiran. Permission to republish Haruko Okano: Ephemeral Artist & Activist in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.