Celebrating the visual languages of PEOPLE, COMMUNITY, CULTURE, and ENVIRONMENT through the global practice of resist-dye traditions and innovations, keeping in mind authenticity, reciprocity, and networking.
Friends in the New England, USA area:
Please consider making a trip to summer-kissed Maine to see “Ragged Beauty,” a beautiful exhibition of boro presented by Haystack Mountain School of Crafts. The pieces on display are from the private collection of Yoshiko (President of WSN) who will also be giving a lecture and teaching a textile workshop on recycle and repair.
“Ragged Beauty” will feature a selection of traditional Japanese textiles that collectively explore the themes of recycling and repair. The exhibition is curated by the renowned textile artist Yoshiko Iwamoto Wada and the work will be on loan from her private collection. The exhibition features boro—Japanese bedding covers and other functional textiles created in the 19th and early 20th centuries from recycled indigo-dyed cotton and bast fiber cloth and repurposed textiles and rags (boro is the Japanese word for “rag” or “tattered” and the process of boro represents the transformation of inconsequential material into something precious and useful). Each boro on display in Ragged Beauty is an assemblage with a unique shape, size, and history–these contemporary interpretations of repair and reuse create a bridge from the past into the future, reflecting traditional values as applied to new forms. The opportunity to view boro and learn about the original use of individual items in the show is unique. More here: Haystack Summer Exhibitions
Yoshiko Wada has taught four times at Haystack, most recently in 2005; this summer she will be teaching a Shibori workshop, Boro Transformed: Patched, Pieced, Stitched, and Dyed in Greenest Indigo, during Haystack’s fourth session, July 15-27. www.yoshikowada.com
THURSDAY, JULY 19 – Yoshiko Iwamoto Wada, Artist Talk – 7:30 pm at Haystack’s Gateway Auditorium, campus
SUNDAY, JULY 22 – Yoshiko Iwamoto Wada, Reception/Gallery Talk – 3 pm at Haystack’s Center for Community Programs, Deer Isle village