Hi Makiko, let's start our interview with a few basics. For
people who don't know you, who are you and what do
you do?
Hi! I'm Makiko. I'm an interdisciplinary artist working
across painting, sculpture, installation, and sound. I'm
half Japanese and half American, from San Francisco, Cali-
fornia and now living and working in London.
Before speaking about your work, let's go back in time
for a moment. Do you remember the first time you got in
touch with visual art?
I remember being a creative kid. I lived in Boston, Mas-
sachusetts for a short time when I was three or four years
old. My parents and grandparents would take me to the
Children's Art Museum there. The museum had a gigantic
room covered floor to ceiling in paper, with pots of paint
everywhere, and the kids were allowed to paint all over
the walls. I absolutely loved it. It felt limitless - no rules,
no canvas size, nobody telling me to wash my brushes in
between using different colors of paint. I have some photos
from that time, I look back at them sometimes to remind
myself why I started doing this work. I think it's to chase
that feeling of freedom.
Later on, you studied painting at the California College of
the Arts and in 2023 you earned your MA in Contemporary
Art Practice from the Royal College of Arts, London. Was
it always clear to you that you wanted to become an artist?
It wasn't always clear to me that I wanted to become an
artist. I was always creative but I didn't have any exam-
ples of professional, full time artists around me growing
up so in some ways I didn't know it was a viable option.
Also, I wanted to make sure that I could always take care of
myself financially. These things drove me to pursue crea-
tive careers with a more linear path. I worked in costume
design and fashion briefly after graduating from universi-
ty, and then switched to digital product design. I've been doing digital product design (user experience design) for
about 10 years now. Adjacent to my art practice, I run my
own design agency still to this day, Silent Howl Studios.
Has working in design influenced how you approach your
art practice or are they two totally separate fields for you?
My design agency is completely separate from my art prac-
tice, except the business skills which I use for both!
Your art speaks about identity and belonging and is in-
formed by feminist theory and your own experience as a
biracial woman. Can you please tell us more?
I mostly grew up in a small town in northern California
about an hour and a half north of San Francisco. I was
born in the Netherlands, then lived in Boston, then moved
to Tokyo, and finally moved to California when I was 7. At
the time, I didn't speak much English and was the only kid
in school with mixed heritage. In some ways, I've always
felt a bit out of place, a sense of home and belonging elu-
sive. My body, the way I looked, was interpreted differently
based on which country I was in, for example, in Japan I
was considered a "gaijin" (foreigner) while in the states
my body was often the object of Asian fetishization.
This led to my body being a focus of critical questioning
from a young age: How does our physicality relate to our
sense of identity and belonging? How do our bodies impact
our sense of power and agency? Through my art practice I
am seeking a sense of freedom from distinct categories of
identity. For example, some of my recent works imagines
new ways to be femme - whether that be soft, powerful,
or ambiguous.
That's the project I wanted to speak with you about next,
"Future Femme."
The work has a bit of "girl power" energy but also I want
to go deeper and examine the flip side of this. Growing up,
I often felt fetishized, the object of stereotypes about the
submissive Asian woman.
"To reclaim feeling like a protagonist
in my own body without abandoning
my sense of gender identity, I began
to explore symbols of feminine power
both on my person and in my work."
Through motifs such as long fingernails, metal plates, nee-
dles, and chains, the work references the intimate, cen-
sored, and visceral. I intend for the work to be aware that
these symbols we use to armour ourselves can also at times
be shields to vulnerability and connection, comical in their
garishness and impracticality such as with the oversized
red fingernails. I aim to use my physicality as a starting
point for ways to understand myself and each other.
Is there any specific motif in "Future Femme" that you'd
like to comment on more in detail?
The motif of fingernails is something I am currently inves-
tigating. I am researching the history of decorating nails
as well as working with metal fabricators and auto body
painters to construct new artworks.
I noticed that the colour red is very present in your work,
not only in your latest project but in many others...
The color red is important to me and part of my research
during my MA at the Royal College of Art in London. For
me, red is a symbol of hybrid identity, of how color (like
my body) is perceived differently across cultures. In Ja-
pan, the red used to paint temples and used by Geisha for
lipstick was made organically with crushed beni flowers
and symbolised good luck, femininity, and prosperity. The
same shade of vermillion in the west was made using toxic
mercury at that time, and was oftentimes associated with
violence and aggression.
"How viewers interpret red seems to be
culturally and contextually dependent,
much like attempts at definitive
identities for people."
- 31 -
- Suboart Magazine -
You mentioned that you work across disciplines to create
your projects. What do you treasure about each of the dif-
ferent techniques you work with?
"I love the immediacy of painting and
the physicality of sculpture. I grew up
playing violin and in many ways was a
more serious musician before I decided
to commit to visual arts."
It's such a pleasure to be able to combine my love for music
with my visual work into installations with sonic land-
scapes. Currently I'm working on an exciting multimedia
project with a commissioned soundtrack. It also includes
metal sculptures, dancers, an underwater film shoot, and
textile works. I'll launch it in London this fall and I can't
wait to share it!
Looking forward to it! Speaking about new work, what
does your creative process look like? How do you usually
get from an idea to materializing it?
I have ideas all the time, and I try to get them down as
quickly as possible because otherwise I forget them. I carry
around a notebook with me and make drawings and notes.
I am terrible at sketching but at least it helps me remem-
ber the idea. I also make voice memos to myself. If an idea
keeps coming back to me over the course of several days,
I'll do a bit of research into feasibility and concept. How
expensive will it be and do I have the skills to create this?
Does this idea fit into an existing project or is it a new one?
How does it relate to the rest of my work?
Then I slot the idea where I think it'll fit amongst other
projects, and start working on it. Depending on what the
project is, it might be going straight to painting from there
or more admin work like researching suppliers. To be hon-
est, the production aspect of running a studio is a bit magic
but also a lot of project management. I have to wrangle all
of my ideas into something producible and something that
tells a cohesive and intentional story.
Last month you had your curatorial debut, "Material In-
stinct", co-curated with your friend and fellow artist Re-
becca Kaufman. What made you want to work as a curator
and is it something that you plan on doing more often in
the future? Also, has the experience somehow influenced
how you view exhibitions?
I loved curating MATERIAL INSTINCT with Rebecca and
plan to do more curatorial projects in the future. We are
already in talks with some galleries in California for an
exhibition next year. We wanted to curate an exhibition to
bring artists together that we admire and create conver-
sations across artists at different levels in their career. It
was a huge success, we had hundreds of folks attend the
opening of the exhibition and hosted a juicy panel talk all
about mentoring in the art world. It was interesting being
on this side of the exhibition experience. The most simple
thing to be an artist that curators would love to work with
again (beyond having great work of course) is to follow
instructions!
And let's wrap up with two last questions. First, is there
any advice you'd like to pass on to fellow artists, especial-
ly those just starting out in their career?
Everyone has a different path- and none of them are lin-
ear, so don't compare to others. Also, most importantly,
don't give up and just keep going!
And last question, if you had to describe your work in only
one word, what would that be?
Empowered
Makiko would like to recommend the following artists:
Lauren Baker (@laurenbakerart), Megumi Ohata (@me-
gumiohata), Lana Matsuyama (@lana_matsuyama)
Get in touch with Makiko: www.makikoharrisart.com
Instagram: @makikoharris