2001 > TEXTURAL SPACE

The touring exhibition of contemporary Japanese textile art opened in April 2001 as one of the first events of ‘Japan 2001’ and was an extremely successful project. It has achieved all its target objectives and has received a huge, appreciative response from the public with more than 82,000 visitors during its eight-month tour of the U.K. The exhibition highlighted the beauty and skill of Japanese textile artists’ response to the texturing of space. The breathtaking spectacle of the monumental work in ‘Textural Space’, assimilating aspects of architectural space including construction, light, materials and perspective was made possible through the technical facility of the artists.

What we wanted to do

An exhibition exploring the use of textile art as a medium which balances texture and space in contemporary architecture featuring Japanese textile artists whose work is concerned with space, texture and materials.

What we achieved

An explosion! 13 of the greatest textile artists in Japan created work in response to the theme. The exhibition was the first event of Japan 2001, a nationwide celebration of Japanese culture. It Opened simultaneously over 6 venues in the South East of England: UCA Farnham, Brighton Museum, Fabrica Brighton, Maidstone Library Galler, Rochester Art Gallery, Rochester Guildhall. It then came together and toured to the Sainsbury Centre for Visual Arts UEA and then the Whitworth Art Gallery Manchester. Media coverage was outstanding including The Independent and the Telegraph. Public interest was enormous, on one day 2,000 visited the installation at Fabrica. The catalogue was sold out.

82 thousand visitors to the exhibition. 8 thousand took part in the Education Programme. 3 reprints of the Teachers Pack. 6 permanent commissions.

texturalspace.com website