Kimono cont’d & Shibori

Posted on August 23, 2008 by Marj Wilson

The kimono arrived–promptly, as I have come to expect of Ichiroya. It is all that I could have wished for; it is so beautiful. From the full kimono picture, it is difficult to see all the wonderful shibori and subtly-dyed detail, but it is a joy to look at, to examine, and to discover new nuances of pattern and design. The color is more vibrant than the image from which I ordered the kimono, but I was already certain, from experience, that it would be the case. The close-up is only a small segmentof the design but it is possible to see the variety of ways in which the shibori has been used. I have always been fascinated with shibori; in case I haven’t already explained, shibori is shaped-resist dying that has been used for many centuries in many countries, Japan being perhaps the foremost.

Because they knew of my interest, Andrew and Linda, my son and daughter-in-law gave me this wonderful volume on shibori that I have had sitting in a prominent place and have probably perused and oohed and aahed over only once or twice since I received it. Last night, having hung the kimono in its place of honor, I brought out the book again and I was blown away. The part of the shibori story that I have been planning to tell is my discovery in the Museum of Kyoto of contemporary uses of this ancient artform, in other words, Shibori Now, which just happens to be the subtitle of the book. I bought these beautiful scarves in Kyoto as gifts and Brent bought the single one for me.

Coals to Newcastle

Posted on August 22, 2008 by Marj Wilson

You would think that bringing to Japan one of my bags, made entirely of traditional Japanese patterns like the wonderful large wave or seigaiha pattern on the front flap–repeated many times over on our Tokyo hotel’s elevator doors for example, would be superfluous, like bringing coals…., but I have never had such an enthusiastic response. We were first checking out a department store in Osaka and wandered into one department where we attempted to communicate with a saleswoman about the various kimonos. At one point she pointed admiringly at my bag and when I indicated to her that I had made it myself, she clapped appreciatively. The same response–with variations–came from a Ryokan matron, a taxi driver, a museum shop salesgirl, and various and sundry other folks.

Those Japanese have such good taste.

Japan: The Art of the Kimono

Posted on August 19, 2008 by Marj Wilson

Contemporary Yellow Kimono

I have written much about my working with traditional Japanese patterns and deconstructed kimonos, a search that has taken many hours of my retirement–a joyous search, I might add, because I have always been fascinated with the Japanese aesthetic. I can probably trace that passion back to the Boston Museum of Fine Arts and one of the finest collections I know of Japanese art and design. Mass Art was just a stone’s throw away and the teachers there were fond of using the Museum’s collection as source material for assignments. I can even remember a fabric design–probably my first–using the ubiquitous stylized waves of Japanese art. So I was excited that a major exhibition of “Kosode: Haute Coutoure Kimonos of the Edo Period“ would be at the Suntory Museum in Tokyo when we were there. While we were in Kyoto, we had visited the textile museum and arrived in time to see a fashion show of contemporary kimonos which, while pretty, were less than awe-inspiring. Most of the kimonos sold on Ichiroya‘s web site–and certainly many of those I had bought in order to deconstruct them–were far more compelling. Continue reading →

Japan: Performance II

Posted on August 19, 2008 by Marj Wilson

Pink Awning

Many respondents regretted the fact that I hadn’t documented Brent’s Tokyo performance. In answer, I am posting a picture of the designated spot where he stood, the pink awning, taken with my iPhone–the only camera I brought to Japan–from my 23rd floor vantage point. You can see the awning on the right side of the picture, just about in the middle (from top to bottom).

Japan: Performance

Posted on August 13, 2008 by Marj Wilson

A Needle Woman Mexico City

There is a Korean performance artist–Kim Sooja–whose videotaped performance, A Needle Woman, consists of the artist, wearing traditional dress with a long braid down her back, seen only from the back, standing very still in one spot in the center of crowded areas of major cities–Tokyo, Singapore, Delhi, New York, London etc.–while rushing pedestrians maneuver around her.

Brent and I are presently in Tokyo; I have made loads of notes and will post some experiences, but this is my first chance to go online for any extended length of time. It has been extremely hot since we arrived more than a week ago, first in Osaka then in Kyoto which appears to be the hottest spot in Japan with temperatures in the high nineties–or thirties, depending upon how you’re measuring, and now, in Tokyo the temperature is hovering around the ninety mark. We were out earlier in the day, then walked a few blocks to lunch and returned to the cool of the hotel room where Brent slept off his persistent sinus headache. Continue reading →

There’s Something About a Mac

Posted on July 8, 2008 by Marj Wilson

As netorio.us writes in his blog, the family that chats together… (what rhymes with chats?) That post was about his sister and brother-in-law trying vainly to connect with a mere pc to all the rest of us mac folks. It finally became such a frustration that we now have a new mac in the family.

Last night my daughter, Joan, and I finally connected “eye to eye” as it were. As we were talking, her daughter, my granddaughter, Alex called on the phone to monitor the newbie’s progress. She was on her way home from work (as an Apple/Mac technician at Tekserve in New York City) and we talked to her as she walked down the street and then rode up in the elevator at the apartment in Brooklyn and turned on her computer–and we used to think it was really funny when Maxwell Smart talked into his shoe. Then we were introduced to her new ceiling fan and we watched as she defrosted some corn dogs for dinner. Cool! Where else…? Continue reading →

Response to netorio.us

Posted on June 30, 2008 by Marj Wilson

So does anyone know how to post an image as a response to a blog? I simply wanted to provide another view of the three-way conversation between my husband, my son (with his wife looking on) and myself–as per his earlier blog. What is probably the most eerie thing about it is that Andrew insists that he never used that tropical background.

I have to say that iChat is a wonderful thing. For the whole month that BW was tooling around Europe, I was able to chat with him “eye to eye” at no cost while the two cell phone calls–from Belgium and the Netherlands added some $40 to my cell phone bill.

All Things Bright and Beautiful

Posted on June 2, 2008 by Marj Wilson

I have been trying to decide on an apt title for this photo. There’s the All in Together Boys that reminds me of jump-rope (very fine weather, girls); What Does a Duck Most; When Does Ascend Up…; and then there’s simply Duck. I’ve been watching the ducks today for some time from my window and then from the balcony. The tide on the river is low and a large group–I count ten just now–have gathered in this spot to dive for food. It must be a combination of the recent rains, the choppier waters and the low tide that appears to have made the pickings here particularly fruitful because the diving is constant, revealing the wonderful white underbellies of these emerald-throated/headed Mallards.

Earlier I was topping, lopping? the past-their-prime lilacs that live on the balcony on the South side of the building where they get the early morning sunshine. The watering is my chore while BW cavorts around Europe. Just below that balcony, and on the rocks bordering a more protected kind of cove, the Canadian Geese are nesting. They are mostly invisible save for their loud honking, this morning precipitated by a group of three innocent Mallards who had the bad fortune of gliding by (far out of reach of the geese and on the completely opposite side of the boat slip), who were nevertheless peremptorily attacked and chased by the protective parent.

The boats seem to multiply daily and all the green is greened, the sky is blue, the sun is shining. Ah, Spring!

YouTube as Video Art

Posted on May 19, 2008 by Marj Wilson

Coco Chanel in Artists Using YouTube

There’s a line from a song in Finian’s Rainbow that goes “when everyone is somebody, then noone’s anybody.” So this Sunday, in the New York Times Sunday Magazine, an article called Pixels at an Exhibition appears to raise once again that burning question: what is art? For the exhibition in question at the Kitchen gallery, named simply, Artists Using YouTube, a few artists were invited by the curator, Rachel Greene, to choose videos from YouTube and to exhibit them in the gallery space. I say that it appears to raise the question although the author of the article, Virginia Heffernan, seems to assume that at least some of it is art or can be framed as art.

Continue reading →

Mixing it up: Color Revisited

Posted on March 22, 2008 by Marj Wilson

So, one of the surprising gems that shone out of the debacle of the foot or more of snow and the failed/cancelled Daemen College Anime Club’s Neo NohCon in Buffalo, NY this past weekend was the show at the Albright-Knox Gallery called Remix Color and Light. (That is, of course, in addition to meeting some really interesting and devoted young students and professionals. I really do miss the excitement of my interactions with students. I think Brent does, too, since he was quick to jump into his “professor” role with a painting student in the studio at Daemen. But, then, does he ever not?)

Like the exhibit at Moma it was about color, and like that show the curator seems to have been confused about what she had actually created. Purportedly it “was conceived as an opportunity to muse on color and light. It highlights the variety of ways we use and interpret color, from the personal and emotional to the intellectual and historical.” But it was so much more, and, in my opinion, put the Moma show to shame. The operant word was remix. What the curator was able to so beautifully accomplish with works from their collection was to highlight a particular work, with color as the main criterion, and then to surround that work with other works that, as Hoagy Carmichael might say, “accentuate the positive.” The viewer was then compelled to see not only the central work but also each of the other works with entirely new insight. The museum’s website fails to demonstrate, and for me to try to reproduce the effect would be an act of futility, but in a way the juxtaposition of my kimono scarf and the Rothko (above and below) demonstrate.

Ubaguito.us

Author Archives: Marj Wilson