Taro Aizu Fukushima Poet
Much of my work deals with issues surrounding the environment and human rights. Travelling with my family a lot as a child, the stark differences both economically and environmentally between some of the countries, or even parts of towns we visited, began to raise a lot of questions for me.
Working as an interpreter in London, I began to hear first-hand stories from asylum seekers and refugees that were sometimes harrowing, and sometimes just amazingly brave and exciting. Creatively, they were impossible to ignore and in my own small way I try bring awareness of these issues to a different audience.
Using collaged material relating to the subject matter, my intention is to subtly draw the viewer in with colour and texture and rouse further curiosity.
I curate exhibitions and give talks about environmental and human rights issues and am in the process of curating Breathing Out a Climate Change Exhibition with Lawrence Mathias and Hannah Pratt for ArtCan.
https://www.hannahprattartist.com/breathing-out-artcan
My paintings have been exhibited with the Just Water campaign in St Paul’s Cathedral London, along with exhibitions and installations for Greenpeace, Toilet Twinning and The Medical Foundation for Victims of Torture. Talks about the Role of Art & the Environment, have taken me from schools and Scout groups to the Soroptomists, Rothamsted Science Research and to COP25 Madrid for RECIDA, Climate Change libraries.
Joining ArtCan in 2016, an organisation that promotes and empowers artists, I am now the Philanthropic Programme Director and on the Advisory Committee.
