The Next Project - Kawaii!!!?

Whilst in Japan I also carried out further research for the next Anglo-Japanese project, one which really pushes me into new territory. It is an exploration of the Japanese culture of Kawaii - a word we understand to mean 'cute', as in Hello Kitty. However Kawaii is much more than Hello Kitty and I am working with artists who have trained in traditional craft techniques and who are challenging the popular, commercial, understanding of Kawaii through their work.

I have made a provisional selection of 15 artists who are working with textiles, urushi (lacquer), glass, porcelain, sugarpaste, and plastic. The discussions I have had with the artists have been extremely interesting and stimulating and I am very excited about the exhibition. I will be updating on progress over the next few months - the exhibition will open at UCA James Hockey Galleries in Farnham in September 2015, and will travel to Rugby Art Gallery and Museum in early 2016. We are looking for a third venue at the moment. In the meantime, here is a taster...

22nd May Poland

From Paris I went directly to Poland, to the Adam Mickiewicz University in Kalisz to give a Paper, Surface Tensions, at their international conference: Creativity in Arts and Arts Education. Alongside the conference were two exhibitions, one of which was the work of Hank Foreman, artist and Vice Chancellor of the Appalachian State University, who also presented a paper at the conference. The other exhibition was that of Diana Harrison, artist and UCA lecturer, whose exhibition for Transparent Boundaries in Wroclaw had toured to the university, and I had the happy honour of Opening it in its new location. The Adam Mickiewicz University will be one of the partner organisations going forward for our next EU proposal and this was an excellent opportunity to develop the relationship and discuss the proposal.

19th May NUNO in Paris

On 19th May I attended the Opening of the NUNO exhibition at the Musée Guimet in Paris, which was a wonderful occasion. Reiko Sudo had come over for the installation of her textile Koi carp which hung above us, circling around and around up into the dome of the museum. It was in fact a re-interpretation of her installation of the Koi carp in the Kennedy Centre in Washington DC. Koi carp kites are flown in Japan on May 5th to celebrate young boys. It was a marvellous experience to watch the delighted faces of the visitors as they entered the room, and the installation was recognised by Le Monde as being one of the 10 top installations in Paris.

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16th May Lace: the transgressive thread

The conference Lace: the transgressive thread, organised by UCA Lace Research Network, took place at UCA Farnham on 16th May, and was very well attended with over 60 delegates. Piper Shepard, Chair of Fiber at Maryland Institute College of Art, who was exhibiting her work at the Crafts Study Centre UCA, was the Keynote. Piper Shepard spoke passionately and eloquently about her work and ideas underlying the approaches she has taken. Other speakers and their subjects were: Professor Lesley Millar (Joint Keynote): High definition and Low definition - lace as mise-en-scène; Gail Baxter: The hidden hand; Joy Buttress:  Lace: interfaces of historical pattern and skin; Angela Davies Golau: Light Networks; Emma Ferry: A Concomitant Orgy of Destruction - The Political Lace Designs of W H Pegg (Paper delivered by Dr Amanda Biggs Goodall); Dorie Millerson: Lace Time Continuum;  Carol Quarini: Twisted threads - subversive domestic lace; Beth Walsh: Lace danger and death in seventeenth-century England.

Working With/In Japan

The last couple of months have been an extremely busy and fulfilling time, a period which also includes my previous news item concerning the conclusion of Transparent Boundaries. At the beginning of April we welcomed our Visiting Professor, Dr Chika Ohgi, from Nagoya University of the Arts who will be with us for a year.

10th April Working With/In Japan

We were delighted that Dr Ohgi spoke at the Working With/In Japan Seminar on 10th April. Her presentation was concerned with the connections between traditional and contemporary textile practice in Japan with particular reference to textiles. An interesting insight was that many traditional Japanese crafts people are more open to discussing their techniques with Western artists than Japanese, this being based on the assumption that Westerners are unlikely to set up in competition! The Seminar also contained presentations from the Senior Co-ordinator for Cultural Affairs at the Embassy of Japan in London, Simon Wright, also artists Jane Clowes, Beverly Ayling-Smith and Ashley Howard. Simon Wright's presentation guided us through some of the cultural nuances in the establishing of collaborative projects including the importance of 'nemawashi' in gaining consensus for projects to happen. Jane Clowes described her research in Japan into different paper making techniques and uses; Beverly Ayling-Smith talked about her experiences when exhibiting in Kyoto last autumn and her presentation to students at Kyoto University for the Arts; Ashley Howard brought us up to date on his on-going collaborative ceramics project with Japan.

Transparent Boundaries Final Meeting

The Transparent Boundaries EU project (www.transparentboundaries.com) has now concluded and on Tuesday April 29th we had our final partner meeting. Joining us at UCA Farnham were representatives of all partner organisations, which afforded us the chance for reflection on all that we have achieved, which amounted to an amazing 49 events. But of course what we have achieved does not lie in numbers alone. As we went through the different Interventions we all realised that was important were the people who were involved and the connections made across nations, cultures and generations. The outstanding, and moving, commitment to the various Interventions from artists and participants was the ultimate testament to the success of the project.

Of particular note were the groups who have carried on, for example the amazing Electric Elders in Recanati, Italy who now run workshops for others and will be collaborating later this month with Salts Mill Lead Artist Helen Cerina. We are delighted with the publication which we have brought together as a lasting record of the project. We were also joined by the Project Evaluators who delivered their initial findings, which very much echoed what had been said by all partners earlier in the meeting.

Once the meeting ended we gently segued into a celebration event to which we had invited participants in the project, members of UCA staff and students, plus members of other organisations who had interest in the project. We showed four of the project videos: the Greek choirs, the interview after the performance at Salts Mill with the artist Helen Cerina and participants in her dance project, the Danish fishermen, and our final wonderful video 'The Perfect Form' - the dance collaboration between Guilio D'Anna (choreographer), Cinzia Camela (video), Ann Dickie and Nicholas Minns (dancers) and Diana Harrison (textiles).

Uwe Derksen, Assistant Director of Research and Enterprise at UCA, spoke about the background to the project. I spoke about the project itself and Diana Harrison described the work she had created for Poland and the workshops she held there.

And so Transparent Boundaries ended, with so much to remember. However...such bonds will not be totally cut! The next day many of us met with new possible partners from Poland and Portugal to discuss the next project! And so we hope to continue....

Transparent Boundaries in Poland

I just returned from a week in cold, cold Poland, but with an incredibly warm/warmed heart. My first stop was in Kalisz where I had been invited to give a presentation at the Adam Mickiewicza University. I was made very welcome by the students and staff, particularly by the Dean, Professor Monika Kastrzewa, and we had a lively and interesting discussion about possible collaboration on future EU projects, which I hope we can achieve.

Then to Wroclaw for the opening of the latest instalment in our current EU project: Transparent Boundaries. UK textile artist Diana Harrison and Italian choreographer Giulio D'Anna have been working together with the Italian photographer and video artist Cinzia Camela in the UK at UCA Farnham and in Wroclaw Poland for Transparent Boundaries. The outcomes are now installed at the Tkacka Gallery in Wroclaw. Both also gave workshops during the week, 2 workshops from Diana Harrison and 4 from Giulio D'Anna. The workshops were specifically for the over-60's and were very well attended; the textile outcomes were shown in the Gallery and the participants in the dance workshop gave a performance in the dance studio to an invited audience.

The welcome and enthusiasm from all concerned was beyond anything any of us imagined or could have hoped for, and is the perfect Transparent Boundaries project.