Through the surface: collaborating textile artists from Britain and Japan

Opening Date: 2004-Jan-27
Closing Date: 2005-May-22
The research took the form of an individual response to participation in a group practice-based research and exhibition project exploring cross-cultural collaboration in the field of Anglo-Japanese textile art and design. The central feature was seven partnerships of emerging and established textile artists and designers where extended periods of time were spent working together to explore each other's practices and develop new works in response to the experience. The research aimed to explore points of difference and similarity within Japanese and British cultures where the real exchange of ideas, techniques and an understanding of cultural and personal sensibilities as they relate to working practice through close collaboration could result in extraordinary practical outcome.

A period of 'collaboration' involved exposure to the daily working life and practice networks of leading textile designer, Junichi Arai. The key objectives were in exposure to broader practices and industrial scale networks. The experience of being 'mentored' and having insight into new or alternative ways of working presented the ideal opportunity to experiment with new and alternative materials and techniques, that as an extension of existing working methodologies in personal practice, would facilitate the development of new work. Potentially this would also indicate directions and applications the studio work might have in industrial contexts.

Working with essentially familiar equipment and practical methodologies, the research work employed sampling of materials new to personal experience. These were explored using familiar and unfamiliar techniques, and a process of selection and design took several ideas forward to final fashion fabric lengths shown in the exhibition phases of the project.

The significant areas of the collaboration were therefore exposure to and new understanding of links between textiles, science and technology; and the impact of new materials and processes on the re-evaluation of traditional practice.