Hiromi Tango: Hanabira (Gentle Petal)

Overview

If an arts festival is happening in Brisbane, Hiromi Tango is normally a part of it. The Japanese Australian artist's work has featured on a heap of Brisbane Festival lineups over the past decade — including in 2018, 2020, 2022 and 2023 — as well as at Botanica in the Brisbane City Botanic Gardens, plus other events around town. Usually, then, checking out her work means rushing along during an extremely limited window; however, that isn't the case with Tango's current Museum of Brisbane residency.

Brisbanites have five months, until Sunday, August 11, 2024, to not only enjoy Tango's colourful creativity but to get involved themselves. Her time at the King George Square gallery includes 花弁 Hanabira (Gentle Petal), a public installation that everyone is invited to contribute to. In order to take part, you'll need to help fill MoB's Adelaide Street Pavilion with sculptural flowers.

Onsite, upcycled textiles and foraged local materials await. Attendees can fashion them into blooms, then add them to the artwork. If you'd benefit from some guidance, drop-in sessions are taking place from 10am–1pm on Thursdays and Saturdays throughout Tango's residency. Or, you can just head by whenever suits you within the 10am–5pm daily opening hours.

花弁 Hanabira (Gentle Petal) takes inspiration from Brisbane's florals, as well as the changing seasons. The idea of the piece is to turn its home into a temporary flower-filled sanctuary. If it all sounds incredibly relaxing and gorgeous, it's also designed to be a meditative experience, with healing and wellness among the concepts that Tango is exploring with the work.

When the Japan-born interdisciplinary artist contributes flowers to the installation herself, she does so in her usual cumulative style, which involves taking everyday objects and materials, then weaving and wrapping over them, then joining them together.

Images: Joe Ruckli.