Conference at the opening of the exhibition: Through the
surface
Collaborating textile artists from Britain and Japan
The Surrey Institute of Art and Design
6th February 2004
JA - We have
chosen specific points to verify how the creative process
was challenged within the structure of this projects cultural
exchange. And how our differences and similarities manifested
themselves on many levels through cloth and site.
The images projected through our presentation
are by Helen Woodget taken during our residency at the University
of Huddersfield.
INITIAL EXPECTATIONS:
JA - I was in Australia
when Lesley Millar first contacted me about mentoring Naoko.
I had just completed a project, ‘Felt Crossing Borders’
in Japan, briefly working and exhibiting in Kyoto. So it was
very opportune and exciting to be given the chance to continue
exploring the role of cloth between East and West as carriers
of meaning through memory and ritual. But from an opposite
point of view and place, through mentoring the creative process
of a Japanese artist in my cultural environment.
NY - After I was chosen
as a participant of the project, I heard Jeanette was my partner
for a collaboration. As I knew little of her and her works,
I looked forward to working with her. Then Jeanette and I
began to know each other by corresponding emails, which gave
me two expectations toward the forthcoming collaboration.
One of them was to cultivate my thoughts about memory which
has been a subject of my works, though I changed techniques
and materials according to works. The other was about a technique,
to get new printing technique except transfer print with liquid
which I used to use.
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THE SCHEDULE:
JA - My main concern was
for us to have a mix of sightseeing, personal time, research
and a working space with materials and techniques specific
to our work. I was with out a base at that time and teaching
at various places, so Naoko had to join my nomadic schedule.
But the contrasts of West Dean College in West Sussex and
the industrial north proved to be appropriate to our research
of the English landscape and textiles, providing unexpected
discussions and language to our ideas. It also introduced
new partnerships to the project, enriching and expanding the
potential of our research.
NY - The collaboration
with Jeanette did not only mean working together in a studio
space but also living as a "nomad". It was completely
different from my life in Japan. I had no ides to develop
into a new work at the beginning. I was just busy to travel
from a place to another without grasping what happened to
me, but gradually I recognized a meaning of my experience.
It was a lot of encountering and leaving from places and people
in a short time. Therefore this experience brought by nomadic
life gave me an idea for a new work.
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RESEARCH:
JH - Naoko arrived in
the UK while I was working at Bankfield Museum in Halifax.
Our collaboration followed on directly, within the Yorkshire
landscape and its textile heritage. The museum manager June
Hill generously organised funding for accommodation and selected
appropriate textiles from the collection for us to study.
Within this Victorian domestic space we explored the permanent,
personal collection of textiles which were ‘soaked with
memory’ as Naoko had requested to see. This gave us
a very strong cultural heritage base to reflect the many other
influences of cloth and site over the following months. We
are grateful to Calderdale Council, Yorkshire Arts and Bankfield
Museum for their support.
NY - I spent much time
in the museum looking at worn out cloth and feeling as if
holes on them were telling their history that is their memories
and narratives were in the holes. This later influenced my
use of the industrial machine where I enjoyed breaking up
garments by needling machine. I tried go through a garment
in a needle punching machine. It made a lot of tiny holes
on a garment like a worn out garment.
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THE SHARED STUDIO SPACE:
JA - Huddersfield University
became our permanent base because tutors Penny Macbeth and
Sophia Malik Stephenson, leaders on the BA [hons] Textile
Crafts course responded enthusiastically to my problem of
finding a studio space. They organised space in the textile
print room with technical assistance and access to equipment.
The University funded our materials and accommodation for
Naoko. We gave presentations to the students which also gave
us deadlines to asses our collaboration so far, adding an
aim to our mentoring schedule and discussions. The interaction
within a university environment stimulated and extended the
experience not possible within the space of a personal studio.
It was a pleasure to work alongside Naoko
whose quiet concentrated working method, changed my usual
busy schedule, into a regular routine of calm focus.
NY - While sharing the
studio space with Jeanette, I had noticed that she used outside
sources to translate them into her work. She often found something
interesting and explained how to use them in her work. It
was very interesting to observe her making process. In contrast
to her I was often floating on my feeling, handling my materials
or doing nothing just seeking in myself for something like
a dream that has been already transformed unconsciously from
outside sources.
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WORKING METHODS AND CONCEPTS:
JA - The initial selection
for my collaboration with Naoko was because of our similar
concerns with the notion of memory and the transformation
of substances from one state to another. After the first mentor
session we realised that she was exploring internal bodily
‘touch’ and texture, while I focused on the external
space of land and colour. Through the regular dialogue and
viewing our working processes we perceived specific individual
nuances in our work, the differences within the similar.
These became more obvious as we sampled
the industrial machines, approaching the process with different
cultural experiences. This dialogue of difference emphasised
one’s individual idea as we constructed or deconstructed
fibre mixes and cloth to accept or dismiss. This was aided
by the technical assistance of David Hand, whose inventive
attitude enabled us to explore the potential of the industrial
Dilo needle felt machine for our individual needs. We were
able to experiment extensively because the fibre was funded
by the university and Wingham Wool Works.
NA - Huddersfield University
has a huge industrial machine called "needle machine"
which I had never seen before. The needle machine changes
a small bunch of fibre into a huge fluffy ball and then into
a flat sheet. The transformation is really dramatic. What
fascinated me the most is a fluffy ball of fibre with lovely
texture. Space in the ball seemed as if it holding something
gently there.
The university had latest sawing machine
as well. We can stitch any complicated patterns automatically
in a short time. It is fantastic. But I didn't work with it,
because the act of stitching rather than its pattern is important
for me. I used stitching in my previous work as a technique
to leave my act of tracing. It was not to draw an image.
JA - Because of the concentrated
period working with the machines, I was able to understand
their process and see this as an extension of my hand as a
creative tool simultaneously with my creative process. I also
realised that the industrial input would emphasis my concept
of a souvenir to mass produce the memory of place. Naoko and
I had discussions around the use of the machines and she found
that just using the machine was not satisfying.
NA - I had, however, a
guilty sense of destroying the used garments with the machine
in an instant, and also an unsatisfactory feeling related
to the fact that I could not touch directly and act on the
materials. It seemed that I would probably need time to involve
myself with the materials using my sense of touch. So instead
of using the machine I employed the previous method of undoing
by hand.
The action of undoing is an intriguing
technique in the sense that during the time of undoing something,
it loses its initial meaning and transforms itself into a
different thing ,that is, into existence itself. This is just
the same as when through the passage of time an experience
transfers itself into memory and the memory is transformed
into the existence of memory itself.
The time of undoing the used garments
by pulling out threads one by one was also the time of unravelling
the secrets behind them; at the same time it was the time
during which my memories of the places were losing their shape.
Both were disappearing simultaneously. The threads that were
pulled out and had fallen looked very fragile and untrustworthy,
and they seemed to be easily lost. So I had the idea of gathering
them up and keeping them in a form in which they could not
be lost. Through twisting the used garments' memories and
my own memories, and spinning them into a thread, I have made
a small ball of the memories that can fit into a person's
hand.
JA - We gradually realised
our making processes had opposite positions, that I was deconstructing
fibre to construct the cloth and Naoko was deconstructing
the cloth to construct the fibre. It was not my technique
that had influenced Naoko but my nomadic lifestyle she had
to occupy. This shared space of displacement had unconsciously
influenced our work only now seemingly obvious through discussion.
NY - On the way of the
journey, I began to collect second hand clothes from charity
shops in various places. Though it was unconsciously at that
time, I might have begun to collect them as symbols of the
people living in the places where I met the clothes. I enjoyed
imagining the histories behind them. Touching the used garments,
I seemed to gain a feeling for the memories of these people
and their everyday lives which the garments used to touch,
a feeling that could not be communicated by words. But after
a while the use of other person's garments gave me a sense
of uneasiness. It began to make me feel torn between comfortable
and uncomfortable or familiar and unfamiliar. I felt "I
do not know this person, I can imagine the people and the
everyday life of the place I visited, but I cannot directly
touch them. There is a feeling of distance and uncertainties."
In a mentor session I said this to Jeanette
concerning with changing the materials. Then Jeanette answered"
this uncertainty could reflect your own experience of displacement."
I said "I am not so uncomfortable, because now I know
why I feel uncomfortable."
I know Western culture as it is in Japan,
but it is different from the real Western culture. I am both
familiar and unfamiliar with English culture. In this conversation
I recognized the unknown's garments were proper material for
my work here and decided to express my experience highlighted
by nomadic life using the second hand garments.
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The mentoring sessions:
JA - Because of the process
of translation I soon realised I needed to give Naoko time
to reflect on my questions which is why this project is so
valuable. It allows answers to evolve from a personal reflection
rather than an immediate response. I enjoyed the unique way
in which Naoko translated into English, conjuring up poetic
images of her thoughts.
The discussions also fed our monthly journals,
providing a regular evaluation of the work in progress. In
turn they have also fed our creative process to a wider audience
on the web site, who will visit the exhibition already in
dialogue with our work.
NY - We discussed our
project over lunch. it was very important for us to have this
moment of discussion because we tended to discuss the surface
matter while we were both in the studio, since we had our
works in front. Where as in the canteen, we talked more about
the conceptual aspect in our project.
The latter seemed to me more important
that the former. Jeanette helped me to gather my cluttered
thoughts. This was completely a new experience for me. Also,
my limited English urged me to find an exact word or the nearest
one to my Japanese word.
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EFFECT OF THE EXPERIENCE:
JA - It was initially
daunting because of the uncertainties in organising the schedule
and to produce work for a prestigious touring exhibition.
The support from Lesley Millar and the partnerships gave me
confidence to trust my abilities and ideas.
The funding and access to industrial machines
enabled me to develop new qualities in the needle felt to
express my issues for a large installation, extending my textile
arts practise. It was also very beneficial to consider the
cloth within the exhibition space through constructive and
perceptive discussions with the designer Philip Bintliff early
on in the design process.
NY - Through the collaborative
work with Jeanette I had chances to try new machines and techniques,
needle machine, a highly efficient sawing machine and heat
transfer print, especially heat transfer print was a new printing
technique that I tried for the first time. But eventually
I employed none of them. I was more interested in Jeanette's
thought for materials and technique rather than her material
and technique themselves.
JA - Working alongside
Naoko I was able to simulate Japanese aesthetics through her
interaction with cloth and fibre. Which influenced my perception
of the material qualities and structural possibilities in
the research of industrial needle felting. The fragile and
transparent cloth which Naoko created was very different to
the solid compacted felt surfaces of my work. It provided
an alternative visual language and extended the depiction
of a tenuous travel line within the textile construction rather
than on the surface.
NY - Soon after our collaboration
began, I knew Jeanette, who was born and brought up in England,
saw wool as connected with animals of the landscape and as
a memory of land, and so she depicted the landscape by the
use of wool. I was so convinced by her way of thinking that
I looked for the meaning of material, a meaning personal to
me. So I unravelled second hand garments and solidified my
fading memories of the land and people before they are lost,
by spinning them into a long story. Thus the undone threads
were spun and became the ball of thread.
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THE CONCLUSION:
JA - Is what you will
see in the exhibition, the result of the duality’s,
our individual work illustrating the differences through the
similar. We both depict a continual line of a journey, but
by different constructions, exposing our personal experiences.
Naoko’s fragile line of hand spun thread wound into
a ball, mostly hidden within the form like an internal memory.
Compared to my continual industrial cloth, revealing and concealing
transitory memory between intimate folds. Both deal with what
is hidden and the creative process is continued through the
audience who have to imagine the unknown.
The collaborative piece resolved itself by becoming a memory,
as our own work explores. Constructed separately in our different
cultures, but holding the dialogue of our ideas. Now, side
by side, it explores our similarities in the layering of fibres
and folding the memory of place.
NY - I am very happy
if you enjoy our translation from the same experiences into
different visual languages.
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