Furoshiki Design Contest: Autumn 2010

In 2010, I took and thoroughly enjoyed a Textile History class available to continuing education students. (You know, the worker bees who can't leave college behind.) The mid-term assignment was to create and submit a design for a furoshiki, or large folding cloth, to The Japan Foundation's International Furoshiki Design Contest.

 I didn't win. No one in our class won. Here is the list of winners.
(I like Great Pacific Garbage Fish, Transporting and Connecting, and Tides best.)

I based my design on traditional shibori patterns and the work of modern Japanese artists like Shihoko Fukumoto and Tsuguo Yanai:

Shihoko Fukumoto

 

Tsuguo Yanai

I chose to simplify and discard every unnecessary element of the shibori form, allowing the viewer to see the work abstractly. I also wanted, like Fukumoto, "to achieve artistic expressiveness within the constraints of a single colour - indigo." And like Yanai, I wanted to use my design to define "the meaning of borders..., altering the awareness of inside and outside." (All quotes from Art Textiles of the World: Japan, Volume Two.)

So, here's my hand painted design:

And here's a link to an article about other Japanese artists with a similar style.