For the Love of Textiles

For my birthday I got the book ' Out of fashion /The new fashion' by Birgitta de Vos .    A book about the world of textiles. The world I love so much. Beautiful photography combined with texts. All done by Birgitta herself. Birgitta de Vos writes in her book the followings quotes: It is a picture poetry book embracing time as a treasure. Away from the fast lane of fashion it takes us on an inspirational world tour meeting forgotten textile makers and methods. It is in love with the proces of creation and embraces time as a treasure. Silent branding, mending, contemplative clothing and unplugged crafting reminding us again who we really are: creative beings. The beauty of this book starts with the cover. A little strip of unbleeched cotton is wrapped around the page. A fabric which we all know and is used in many garments we wear on a daily basis. The book is filled with visual poetry from all over the world. Starting with 'Tim...

Women dressed in kimono's in front of the shop by Matsuzakaya Triptyk 1813-1814 by Elzan Kikuwara (1787-1867) Last May we visited Paris for a few days.  Paris for us means next to enjoying every moment that we stay there visiting exhibitions. This time we have visited some unexpected exciting musuems. As was Musée Guimet : The National museum for Asiatic art. One of the exhibitions shown there was: 'Kimono: Au bonheur des dames'. The exhibition is nog longer on view, but this article will show you what you have missed. The exhibition showed about 100 kimono's and other artisanal products from the house  'Matsuzakaya' . This Japanese firm, founded in 1611 in Nagoya by Sukemichi "Ranmaru" Itö was originally a modest manufactory of silk kimono and Japanese laquerware.  Interior of the shop by Maison Matsuzakaya round 1772 In 1736 the company expaneded its business to the retail sale of cotton and linen kimono's. Logo Matsuzakaya T...

Two years ago at the Biennale in Venice I was very impressed by the work of the Japanese artist Chiharu Shiota . Her work 'The key in the hand' was on show in the Japanese pavilion. It was ' The Sensation of the Biennale'. Two old boats were floating in a sea of used keys and the whole space looked like a grotto made from red woolen thread on which keys hang. The keys came from houses all over the world. There were thousends of them.   For Shiota keys means a connection to each other and boats cary people and time. Poetic and political it was. I thought about refugees leaving their homes and crossing the sea in old boats to get off in a safer place to live. About the houses I have lived in in my life. I remember staying there a long time. It was a work of art which came into my mind and probably stays there always when I think of visit to the Biennale in 2015. Until October 25,  Shiota has an exhibition in the Noordbrabants muse...