HIROKO WATANABE
Japan
RED CLOTH’S MOVEMENT. Linen, cotton, wire, metal yarn, handwoven. 132 x 93 x 19 cm
I selected this piece from a project entitled “Aka no shiriizu” (Red Series). I’ve always been totally captivated by the material properties of textiles, and I’m especially drawn to red, a mysterious colour that embodies both yang and yin, the opposed male and female principles in East Asian cosmology. I decided to see what happened if I tried to combine and draw out the amazing strength of fabric and the magical power of red, working with threads coloured an extreme scarlet hue derived from a contemporary chemical dye. I plan to continue using fabrics developed at the cutting edge of modern technology as a means of expressing my sense of symbiosis with the very origins of life.
