Takako Osawa is a multidisciplinary emerging artist who lives and works on the land ofWurundjeri Woi-wurrung and Bunerong Boon Wurrung people of the Eastern Kulin Nation.
She works across body, spirituality and often through lens to explore how humans and non-humans are shaped through history and political structures. Her Shinto(Indigenous Japanese rituals and culture) philosophy acquired in a remote village in Japan during her childhood scanned her environment and continue to evoke social and political discussions on her practices. Her performance photograph Self-Portrait in which she covered herself with hand collected rubbish from around the Royal Botanic Gardens in Melbourne, received the Global Awareness Award at the Graduate Art Prize, University of Melboune in 2024. Depicting the harmonious life with nature of her mother in contrast to a busy Tokyo Street, Reclaim the Land in 2024 has been selected as a finalist for Emerging Artist at the Ravenswood Australian Women’s Prize in 2025.
Her recent project focuses on the critically endangered Australian native animals to consider ecology from a Shinto perspective. She is currently undertaking a Master of Contemporary Art at the VCA, University of Melbourne, to extend her field of practice.