Michiko
Kawarabayashi – June
May 29th, T-shirt exhibition.
We went to the exhibition which was organised by WORLD. Ealish
seemed to be interested in the show since she also designs
T-shirts.
June 1st, exploring the suburb of Kyoto.
The beauty of the rural part of Kyoto was impressive. It has
been preserved very well. There are still people who are living
there whose families have always lived there. We were impressed.
A temple standing in rain emphasizes the quiet atmosphere
of the place. We were soaked by the serenity, exactly as one
sees and experiences in Japanese paintings.
June 2nd, Sushi bar.
I took Ealish and my friend from Boston. I wanted Ealish to
experience the Japanese food culture. The chef’s movement,
the interior of the restaurant and how it’s served impressed
Ealish deeply. I exchanged some information about university
with my friend who is a professor.
June 7th, galleries in Naoshima, Kagawa.
We made this trip with Anniken and Agano. We went to the ‘Wolfgang
Laib’ exhibition at Inokuma Genichiro Museum. The works
were about the link between death and life. He used pollen,
rice, milk and wax for his works. We wondered why. We stayed
in Naoshima.
June 8th, Bennesse Naoshima, the contemporary
art museum.
There is a project called, Art House Project in Naoshima.
Artists transform old houses in Naoshima into works. There
was a piece called, Hotel Museum which has been transformed
by Tadao Ando. The place was very therapeutic so that we thought
of the importance of art for our mental well being. It was
a lovely little trip.
June 13th, The Japanese traditional dye
workshop
We could see the whole process of making Kimono. Ealish was
very intrigued by it.
14th to 20th June, Ealish went to Tokyo
with Anniken. Meanwhile, I made some silkscreen for our collaborative
project.
21st June, Anniken came to my house.
We had a nice party with her.
22nd June, Meeting.
We had an official meeting with our interpreter, Nakayama
exchanging our ideas of the finish of the work. I asked Ealish’s
opinion. We will make our idea more specific as we proceed
with our work.
June 24th, Maronie Gallery.
The students from Seian Zokei University had an exhibition.
Ealish has an open mind and she was asking many questions
to the students.
June 26th, Ealish’s lecture at
Seian Zokei University.
It showed her intention and work very well. My concern is
how to utilise this information for our project. She has a
strong voice so that we could hear her very well.
June 28th, the tea party at Kyoto Art
Centre.
It was held by my art critic friend, Etsuko Nakatsuji. Afterwards,
we went to Anniken’s farewell party at Kawashima’s
house.
Michiko Kawarabayashi
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Ealish
Wilson - June 2003
This month seems to have flown by. I
have been busy seeing a variety of exhibitions, working
on my collected imagery, visiting Tokyo and Naoshima.
I have been developing imagery ideas
from my photographs over the last few weeks. The focus of
my inspiration being architecture and the shapes formed from
shadows and reflection. Kyoto Station has been of particular
interest, architecturally it is a huge mix of styles, but
this has provided me with a lot of visual information. I have
spent time there photographing various sections at different
times of day for variety of light.
The Prada building in Tokyo has also
been very inspiring; it is just like quilted fabric. The use
of concave and convex glass creates a rippled surface that
catches the light giving the impression of texture. I have
tried to look at the architecture from a textile perspective;
choosing areas I think have fabric qualities.
The Kimono is another area of fascination,
the way it is wrapped and there are so many hidden aspects,
expensive under garments, pockets and layers of fabric. I
particularly like the way in which the Obi belt is wrapped
around the wearer like a gift.
The layering is very pertinent to the
collage and deceptive nature of my work; you are not quite
sure what is there. The shape is also interesting which I
have photographed, however they are always in the same position.
Ms Agarno has agreed to let me photograph her in Kimono. This
will be very useful to get close ups of sleeves and wrapping
to further develop my thoughts.
The physical making of the Kimono has
also interested me. The fabric used is always 39cm wide and
the pattern is repeated on this width for 12m then the kimono
is dyed and the pattern matched to create the garment. This
could be an interesting restriction to place around the development
of the personal piece. I am still using the Misuhiki strings,
I have been hand sewing with them which is creating different
surface textures on the fabric, their wire quality gives a
soft sculptural nature to the fabric. I am very excited by
the possibilities of this on a large scale.
The collaborative piece is developing
slowly this is partly due to language difficulties on both
sides, it is hard to get our ideas across. Now that there
is physical imagery to work with our communication can be
visual which I am looking forward to. Once we have designs,
the layout of the piece can be experimented with. We have
talked about layering and crossovers through cut outs in the
fabric as some of our views of Japan are the same, however
it is important for the pieces to co exist without being contrived.
Again this will develop through imagery and placement choice.
We have talked about the combining of our working methods
and techniques which will be an on going process over the
next 6 weeks.
The exhibition/ studio calendar has been
particularly enjoyable this month, experiencing work by James
Turrell, Katsura Funakoshi and visiting Professor Fujimoto’s
studio.
James Turrell who explores the use
of light and space has designed a façade of light for
Takarazuka University of Art in Osaka. The piece starts as though
someone has entered the building and turns a light on. Then
gradually the colour grows through the spectrum, from top to
bottom in intensity and from side to side in gradation. His
work is hard to experience on the web but worth a look, www.pbs.org/art21/artists/turrell
Katsura Funakoshi is a Japanese sculptor
of wooden figures. You look at them and know they are wood
but he manages to create real translucency to the skin through
paint, making them quite eerie as though they are frozen in
time. They look sad as though they have stories that could
never be told. http://www.annelyjudafineart.co.uk/previous/
funakoshi/funakoshi.htm
Professor Fujimoto, a renowned fibre
artist invited Anniken and I to his studio. We spent a fascinating
afternoon conversing about art and discussing our influences;
how fine art can really stimulate ideas for textiles. I was
delighted to see more of Lia Cooks work, an American artist
who works large scale through the computer. This was a good
opportunity for us to compare and exchange views on the textile
art scenes of Europe, Japan and America.
Now in the second half of my time in
Japan I don’t want to waste a minute. I have an abundance
of collected material and information which means this is
a very exciting stage and I am looking forward the collaborative
process Michiko and I will go through over the coming weeks.
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