Tansa – Japanese threads of influence exhibition of miniature works

 

This exhibition at the Crafts Study Centre includes miniature textiles made in response to a research trip to Japan organised by Professor Lesley Millar in 2019 for researchers with links to UCA. Each of the researchers and nine of the amazing Japanese artists the group visited during the trip have each made one exquisite miniature piece of work for the exhibition. It is impossible to single out individual pieces so I will talk about them all in a series of blog posts, for the purposes of which I have grouped them into themes which speak to me. Today I’m starting with four pieces that I consider to be lacelike. The image above is ‘Japan in colour’ by Evie Francis www.weaveyevie.com which incorporates the spectrum of colour seen throughout the trip, expressed in handweaving.

Jennifer Jones www.jenniferjones.eu also uses hand weaving to express the relationship between fibre and structure in ‘Concord’ inspired by shibori techniques but using weaving to produce the effect of lightness and structure.

Susan Blandford www.crochetessentials.co.uk was inspired by the shrubs supported by Yukitsuri frameworks in Kenrokuen Gardens to produce ‘Poco a poco Little by Little’ in crochet using gold and indigo dyed threads.

My own piece ‘inside:outside’ was also inspired by gardens and temples and the Japanese sensibility of ‘shin gyo so’ broadly expressed as the realistic, the impressionistic and the abstract. It is constructed from a flat piece of bobbin lace which is folded to form an abstract representation of a temple roof. This manipulation of the inside and outside mirrors the reflective nature of these spaces of peace showing that the inside and outside are interdependent and indistinguishable.

The exhibition runs until 26 March at the Crafts Study Centre, Farnham, and then travels to Gallery Gallery in Kyoto. I will be covering more of the exhibits over the next few weeks – watch this space!