Mayu Kanamori
Mayu Kanamori was born in Tokyo, is based in Sydney and often exists between places on planes, cars, foot, trains, and subways. She is a writer and freelance photographer, frequently combining both in her performance practice as a form of story-telling. She makes site-specific art projects collaborating with communities and artists and creators from other genres; writes plays, blogs, and poetry; creates installations, performances, documentaries, and radio programmes; takes photographs, makes video, and audio installations; and researches, interviews, and facilitates others in telling their stories.
Mayu began creating narrative works using audio interviews with The Heart of the Journey (2000, in collaboration with ABC Radio National), a radio documentary about an indigenous Australian from Broome searching for her Japanese father. This feature was programmed on Radio Eye and received commendation in the 2000 United Nations Association of Australia Media Peace Awards in Promotions of Multicultural Issues. The Heart of the Journey was later produced in a performance context including projected photographs and live narration by the artist, and was presented by arts festivals throughout Australasia. Her later works deal with Australian and Japanese cross-cultural and migrational themes, and her more recent works further these concerns through an attempt to make spiritual connections with people and landscapes of both countries.