Urase Co., Ltd. Harmony. 1997. Polyester, 40" (101.6 cm). Mfr.: Urase Co., Ltd., Fukui. Heat-transfer printed
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Textiles are among the oldest and most pervasive art forms. Beauty, tactility, and technical sophistication contribute as much as utility does to their status as vital artifacts of our material culture. Purveyors of information, textiles can help to trace the economic and social profile of a particular society. They are cultural symbols, inextricably linked to daily activities and language.
In recent years, Japan has produced some of the most ingenious and dynamic textiles being made today. Artists, designers, and manufacturers working in Japan are drawing from a rich textile tradition, integrating ancestral techniques with contemporary tools and technologies. The collection of truly remarkable fabrics included in Structure and Surface: Contemporary Japanese Textiles is a tribute to this synthesis. As models of twentieth-century design, these masterful artworks expand the boundaries and possibilities for creating textiles.
The works are organized into six categories that describe the predominant characteristic of each: TRANSPARENT, DYED, REFLECTIVE, PRINTED, SCULPTED, LAYERED. The grouping of a textile into one category does not preclude its relevance in another. Some of these fabrics, for example, may rely on a printing technique to achieve a three-dimensional relief or on a layering process to produce a shimmering metallic surface. The divisions serve only as a structure enabling alternative journeys of discovery and a guide to creative processes that have transformed flat planes into incredible inventions in cloth.
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