Teruyoshi
Yoshida - July
July 13th Sunday
Claire arrived in Kyoto at 9pm. She checked into the Karasuma
Kyoto Hotel. Ms. Kawashima rung me from the cafe at the hotel
to let me know that Claire got here safely.
(I couldn't come and see her there because of the university
event.)
July 14th Monday
In the hotel lounge, I met Claire for the first time, together
with my friend, Itakura who translates our conversation. We
introduced ourselves. We discussed about what Claire wanted
to experience in Kyoto. Claire emphasised that she wanted
to see mundane lifestyle of Japanese people. I was startled
by what she said. Similarly, I am always inspired by the everyday
life. Mostly Claire was concerned about how we collaborate
together. In response to this, I suggested to her to see and
enjoy Kyoto first, until mid-August. Then from mid-August
to mid-September, we will perform some workshops and make
some samples for our collaboration. I thought that today's
meeting could be just an introduction, however, we ended up
talking over two hours together with Itakura who interpreted
for us.
At one o'clock, we went to the historical
bistro 'Yoshikawa' and had some tempura. Claire was just mesmerised
by the performance of the chef in front of her eyes. She liked
both the appearance and the taste of tempura. After the lunch,
we had a stroll around the centre of Kyoto where we could
see the historical buildings. Those buildings were used for
more than a hundred or two hundred years. Then we went to
the famous food market called, Nishiki. We walked along the
narrow path where the stalls were standing closely. Claire
was interested by all these and observing everything enthusiastically.
After the stroll around Nishiki, we went to Shijo boulevard.
This was the season for one of the greatest festivals in Japan,
called Gion Festival. One that day, there were several floats
with shrines which symbolised the theme of the festival. 16th
is the day for the main festival and there are always thousands
of people gathered from all over the place. Even today, there
was a huge crowd. The main float of the procession prohibits
women, so we were on one of the other floats where we had
a guide to explain what was happening. This was the first
experience of Kyoto for Claire.
July 17th Thursday
This is the big day for the main parade which has been a tradition
since Heian-period. I was informed well before from Ms. Kawashima
that Claire would stay over the period of the festival. So
I booked the tickets for her well in advance. Unfortunately,
I had to work at the university, so I gave Claire the ticket
on the 14th and asked Itakura to go along with her. Later,
Itakura told me that she enjoyed the parade from the beginning
to the end although it was such a hot day.
July 21st to 29th
I was invited to the exhibition which was called '20years
International Textile Art Grez'. I stayed in Grez, Austria
during this period.
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Claire
Barber - July
After having recently arrived in Japan
I am greedy to know what kind of response I am going to make
to my stay. However the beauty of this project is that it
presents the priceless opportunity not to need to know. If
I can just constantly keep trying and working hard while at
the same time
trusting my intuition to appreciate and connect the threads
of ideas generated through experiences into some kind of unpreconceived
form, I hope then that I will be able to find some kind of
creative path into my work.
what a tight rope we walk!
Below are some short excerpts taken from
my diary, that, like an old pal gives me comfort and a place
of reflection during these first few challenging, exciting
and bewildering days in Japan.
15th July
Today I went on the train with Ealish to the Kyoto University
with the incentive to buy some gold pigment. Coming back on
the train we were struck by the brilliance of the green rice
fields crammed in between grey blocks of flats and houses,
some with luscious blue glazed tiled roofs, some with washing
hanging from the balconies, while on board I peered at people
who had
elegantly shut their eyes in sleep.
16th July
What a joyous moment! I glimpsed a geisha
today. I noticed the pinkness of her youthful complexion gently
penetrating though her fine white make-up. For a brief moment
she and I were so close that I could have smudged her delicate
mask. Cherry lips and layers of draped turquoise, orange and
lime coloured fabrics seem to play surprisingly beautiful
& discordant notes. These veils gave the geisha a gentle
closure to her surrounds. How discreetly erotic she appeared
as she made her articulate performance through the crowded
street.
But she was gone so swiftly from view.
Seeing the last trace of turquoise, orange and green reminded
me of a camping holiday in France when I was about seven or
eight years old and became fascinated by photographing butterflies.
Dad used to say that he used to see my bum in the air (poised,
crouching with camera in hand) most of the time during these
dry sunburnt days. I looked at my photograph album recently
and was surprised that only two photos ever came out. How
pleased I am that I didn’t have a zoom lens! Some things
are so beautiful it is almost as if they are not supposed
to be caught. This child-like clarity is helpful as I wander
into the subject of my work.
17th July
During the first few days in Japan I have had the interesting
experience of living with Ealish and her mentor Michiko and
absorbing the day to day life within a Japanese household.
I sense a creative confidence in Michiko`s
preparation of food. She is using the full palette of taste
and texture in her cooking, which is concocted with such fluidity
and rapidly interchanging ideas with ingredients that her
husband can never lay the table right! I enjoy the fact that
he cannot predict the right bowls to lay as his wife moves
swiftly through her culinary ideas, throwing the activity
of eating out of a calmly pleasurable, succulent or sensual
experience. Rather my taste buds are taken off guard as they
experience alarm, horror and intrigue within a mere mouthful.
Sitting at her dining table I can look
behind into her studio and in front towards the kitchen. Smells
of dinner pass into the studio and sights of the kitchen pass
into the studio. If I could speak with Michiko I would like
to discuss how her work moves from studio to kitchen and the
creative possibilities that this transitory space could contain.
18th July
I have arrived at Harumi Isobe’s house where I am to
live and work during the rest of my stay.
I have always longed to live with looms
- and her house contains two of them! It is not that I want
to physically weave. It is the tension in the warp and the
potential it contains that excites me.
A sense of textiles penetrates the house
as if Harumi had orchestrated a million cicadas to make their
dense vibrating sound penetrate, almost like a physical texture,
into every part of the house, or, as if she herself had enticed
the cucumber plant to spiral and twist and cling to the hessian
warp like rope tied from the small garden to the foot of the
living room balcony, or, as if she had consciously placed
the books on the shelf so that their titles could be read
like poetry;
thirst for love : great dishes of the
world : spring snow : child in the forest : volcano
A gentle breeze rustles this paper as
it passes through the fine linen fly net screens covering
the window spaces of the upstairs rooms and I wonder if through
living in solitude in this house I may find a close unselfconscious
integration between textiles and my day to day life.
Lying in bed I notice small fibres and
dust particles cling to the rough textured wall. I begin to
unravel the warp fibres from my blue satin night dress and
place the delicate yarn in fluid waves and dynamic gestures
over the wall. In the depth of night I enjoy the shimmering
marks in the company of a thousand noisy cicadas voraciously
living the three days of their life to the full, after seven
years sleep.
24th July
I have relished the opportunity to spend time with Ealish
and reflect on our experiences of Japan, hers in response
to a three-month investigation, mine from a few days encounter.
We have freely discussed our ideas, dreams and gripes with
little self-consciousness.
Yesterday we visited the golden temple
and admired its elegant reflection within the mirror pond.
We participated in Japanese tea and bit into small sugar coated
cakes with a small piece of gold leave on top. Ealish noticed
a small fragment of gold adhere to my lip.
Today we visited to Nara, a town famous
for its magnificent temples. Sitting on the steps of the Great
Buddha Hall we peered at our tickets noting it’s outstanding
dimensions and the 2.54m length of the ear of the Virocana
Buddha within. But the ambiance of the sight, with its cacophony
of street vendors and snap happy tourists had been tarnished
‘whatever I am looking for` I thought ‘its surely
not here?’
So, as is often the case, I encountered
a complete paradox to these thoughts. It happened while wandering
back to the station and passing by a karaoke hall and car
park. In the far corner Ealish pointed out a building with
an incredible surface glowing in the dim, dusk light.
As we wandered over we were still baffled.
Up close this building had an extremely seductive surface
which shone like golden swirls of ice cream dappled with silvery
lichen-like splatters. There was a moment of hesitancy as
Ealish gingerly put her index finger out to touch the material.
We laughed finding it was insulation foam and the silver-like
substance was weathered grey paint. This building was, as
we peered at the stacks of empty boxes beside it, probably
a cooler room for the drinks sold at the karaoke hall.
It was one of those experiences which
stimulates thoughts and recollections to dash all over place
and time. I recalled a dead tamarisk branch beside as footpath
in a town in western Australia I’d seen a few years
ago. I had noticed that as the pedestrians walked up and down
the path and crushed the seemingly dead needles, that they
caused a little bright green dust emerge. Thoughts went to
home where RA Webb and I crawled underneath our wooden house
to lay silver coated insulation board to give our home warmth
in winter and then I remembered the gold pigment I’d
recently purchased to touch a space as lightly as the powder
had touched the geisha’s face. I wondered about my mentors
work with its suspended gold squares and my attempt to find
an emotive and conceptual way into this installation. I also
relished in the coincidence of visiting the golden temple
only a day before and my ponderings on one of my favourite
quotes (by the artist Roni Horn) ‘rubies reddened by
rubies reddening` as I looked into the mirror pond.
What a wonderful time to appreciate the
alchemic- like weathering process that has transformed a grey
cool room, made from highly manufactured materials, into a
beautiful golden form.
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