Exhibition Dates 2004
Exhibition Dates 2005
Links
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| UK tour January – November
2004 through the surface is an exhibition about collaboration, process and outcome, featuring 14 of the most innovative textile artists in Britain and Japan. The work has been created through a unique collaboration between emerging and established artists in the two countries - emerging artists from each country travelled to work with established artists from the opposite country. These cross-cultural and cross-discipline working relationships are pivotal to the project and within the exhibition the collaborations and the processes of creating and making will be as important as the final works. |
| The work within the exhibition demonstrates clearly,
for the first time, the wide territory occupied by textiles as techniques
and materials move across and between cultures, nations, art, industry,
design and architecture. Each artist has had a basic commission
fee to enable the production of new work and by working together,
the artists in through the surface are developing: |
| The materials and techniques used range from the most natural to the highly innovative; from the traditional to the extremely unexpected. Different disciplines within the textile medium have been a part of this collaboration, knit with stitch, weave with knit, print with performance, weave with print, stitch with felt, cloth with industrial processes… Each of the participants is taking risks and expanding his or her working practice. |
The exhibition design reinforces and reflects the fluidity of ideas, the exchange of understanding and the establishment of the relationships. From the earliest stages Philip Bintliff from Studio BAAD, one of the most exciting young architectural practices in the UK has been working with the participating artists, the curator, the venues and the designers of the support material. The exchange of ideas, working practices and cultural understanding developed over nine months between all participants provide the points of reference within this exhibition of shifting boundaries. |
Support material |
As with the exhibition design, the bi-lingual catalogue (order form pdf) reflects the energy and fluidity of the project. It is highly visual with photographic documentation of each partnership and of the creative outcomes. All participants have contributed summaries of their involvement in the project and there are also overviews of the project from both the Project Director and the Project Co-ordinator in Japan. The distinguished architectural journalist Jay Merrick has contributed a critical essay and there are contributions from Professor Marie Conte Helm, Director General of the Daiwa Anglo Japanese Foundation and Mr. Takeo Uchiyama, director of the Museum of Modern Art Kyoto. Photographers Toshiharu Kawabe, Damian Chapman and Ian Forsyth have photographed the final works in Japan and England. |
| Venues The project has been originated and supported by The Surrey Institute of Art and Design University College and the exhibition opened at the Institutes James Hockey and Foyer Galleries and, in a cross-region collaboration, at Hove Museum and Art Gallery. 5 partnerships were shown in Farnham – Junichi Arai/Tim Parry Williams, Teruyoshi Yoshida/Claire Barber, Jeanette Appleton/Naoko Yoshimoto, Frances Geesin/Kaori Hosozawa, Machiko Agano/Anniken Amundsen. 2 partnerships were shown at Hove – Maxine Bristow/Kyoko Nitta, Michiko Kawarabayashi/Ealish Wilson. |
| Discussions had taken place with Fabrica in Brighton since the earliest stages of the project, resulting in a site-sensitive installation shown between March and the end of May. An extant piece of work by Teruyoshi Yoshida – a large scale installation of gold leaf squares 5 metres x 5 metres – was shown together with an installation created by his young UK partner Claire Barber. Brighton Festival also commissioned a new music work which should be a response to Yoshida’s work from the composer Edward Dudley Hughes. This composition was premiered on May 8th. The work from Farnham and Hove then came together at The Sainsbury Centre for Visual Arts between April and June. |
| The exhibition will then visit Bankfield Museum, who have been involved in the project from early stages and were joint host with the University of Huddersfield to the exchange partnership of Jeanette Appleton and Naoko Yoshimoto. The large scale of the exhibition has allowed for this to be another split site showing with Piece Hall in Halifax and will the core exhibition will be joined by the site-sensitive installation from Fabrica to be shown at Square Chapel. The musical composition by Edward Dudley Hughes will also be performed at Square Chapel during the showing of the work. The final venue in this country will be Castle Museum and Art Gallery Nottingham with the site-sensitive work of Yoshida/Barber shown at the Yard Gallery, Wollaton Hall. The exhibition will then travel to Japan in 2005 |
| Split site: 27th Jan – 20th March |
| 22nd April – 29th May
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| Fabrica www.fabrica.org.uk |
| Piece Hall |