Stitch by Stitch: Traces I Made with Needle and Thread |
Reviews |
Written by Mizuki TANAKA |
Published: September 24 2009 |
fig. 2 Zon Ito "Nanjing duck" (2008); photo: KEI OKANO, courtesy of Tokyo Metropolitan Teien Art Museum fig. 1 Sayaka Akiyama (2009); photo by Hideto NAGATSUKA, courtesy of Tokyo Metropolitan Teien Art Museum The subtitle of this exhibition is “Traces I Made with Needle and Thread”. The “I” is a tricky word. It is often used by women as the first person singular pronoun. In its Japanese subtitle, the “I” is written using hiragana (Japanese syllabary characters), which gives us a softer image than kanji (Chinese characters). This contributes to strengthening the feminine impression of the “I” included in the subtitle. fig. 3 Asami Kiyokawa "Complex-voice" (2007); photo by Takemi Art Photos, courtesy of Tokyo Metropolitan Teien Art Museum In this exhibition, we can enjoy looking at creations made by eight artists, including men and women. Most exhibits were created using private themes, as shown in the subtitle of this exhibition. Sayaka Akiyama made an embroidery on a map to trace a road which she often walked along [fig. 1], and Zon Ito stitched something like a drawing whose subject is difficult to grasp at first glance [fig. 2]. Asami Kiyokawa expressed women’s complexes about their bodies from her woman’s perspective [fig. 3], and in the work entitled “Someone whom I have known and do not know walking upstairs in A. City and W. City” [fig. 4], Kei Takemura used thread to depict the figures of people whom he had met in town. Aiko Tezuka embroidered various kinds of subjects, such as her favorite paintings, on a cloth which is large enough to reach the ceiling [fig. 5]. In the exhibition room, each exhibit conveyed to me its own self-assertiveness, such as “I…..”, “I…..”, and “I…..”! fig. 6 Ruriko Murayama "mantle" (2009); collection of Forever Museum of Contemporary Art, courtesy of YAMAMOTO GENDAI
There is an inward-looking perspective, just like retreating into one’s house where one no longer has to work for other people. Why did each exhibitor depict “I (himself/herself)”? For whom did he/she express “I (himself/herself)”? Each “I” depicted in the exhibits shown to us by the creators and the museum is a place where the relationship with others is broken off, which makes us feel as if “I” has been locked in our minds. Here, I would like to review other exhibits created by Ruriko Murayama and Atsushi Yoshimoto. Murayama expressed a repressed feeling by stitching excessive decoration on bodies and black cloaks [fig. 6], while in the creation named “nui project” [fig. 7], Yoshimoto tenaciously embroidered many thin lines. These two works were created with the aim not of expressing the creators' ideas themselves but of making the viewers conscious of the significance of stitching or the presence of “people who embroidered” beyond the individuals who created the exhibits. fig. 7 Atsushi Yoshimoto (nui project) "Untitled" (2005); courtesy of Tokyo Metropolitan Teien Art Museum Above all, I would like to draw attention to Tsunao Okumura’s work entitled “Guard Man’s Stitching Works” [fig. 8], which is composed of a photograph and an installation. The photo shows a car park attendant's room from which light is being shed over a corner of a dim underground parking area. Within the room there is a well-built man wearing glasses and a manly dark blue uniform. This is the person who created the work. He is staring at a cloth. The picture seems to have been taken secretly, which makes us feel as if the creator intended to hide his act - embroidering - since the general notion is that stitching is a feminine job. In addition, it provides us with a completely different perspective of the subject to that of women in old paintings. Traditionally, women have been depicted as objects of the viewers and are therefore placed within a picture plane created using excellent composition. The man taken in this photo is embroidering a book jacket, using a design filled with characters which are usually associated with men. In other words, he is creating something necessary for daily life himself. The surface of the embroidery has been filled with fine seams, which makes us feel that the creator selected subjects which contribute to bringing the act, “embroidering”, to the viewer’s attention rather than expressing himself. Okumura considered the man taken in the picture not as a subjective existence, “I”, but as an objective figure of “a man”, while taking the photo of himself. Through this work, he intended to make the viewers pay attention not to a “thing” - stitching work - but to an “act” - stitching - which contributes to making them strongly aware of how stitching has been considered over a long period of history. This exhibition, in which various roles of embroidery are shown, may give us some new perspectives on stitching.
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Last Updated on July 05 2010 |
I found a new initiative in this exhibition in that it was held as a “modern art exhibition” using the theme of “stitches”. Nevertheless, through this exhibition, I could enjoy looking at works from a wide variety of genres, although most of them had little emotional impact on me. The only exhibit that drew my attention was the “Guard's Stitching Works”, which was created by Tsunao Okumura. Below his stitching work and the photograph which was taken of the scene where it was created, a set of exhibits are displayed which give us various images of his workplace, such as his uniform, notebook, watch and stitching work which has been partially completed. In fact, the work is comparable in size to two facing pages of a paperback book, but the surface of the cloth on which he tenaciously made the “stitches” (the act of working using a needle and thread), gave me an overwhelming impression. This is a fine example of a remarkable artwork which attracts viewers regardless of the genre into which it has been classified by others, whether that is “modern art” or “stitching work ”. (Translated by Nozomi Nakayama)