Aiko Tezuka: Dear Oblivion

_{Photo: Shintaro Yamanaka (Qsyum!)}

While exploring the language of painting Tezuka came to focus on textiles, and her work that employs a unique method of deconstructing and reconstructing textiles has been highly acclaimed both domestically and overseas. In recent years, she has been based in Berlin.

This is Tezuka’s first solo exhibition in 12 years at Spiral Garden since her last solo show “Thin Film, Underground Forest” in 2007. This exhibition showcases four new pieces that emerged from her extensive investigation into the relationships between Japan and Western Europe, Art and Crafts, Modern and Contemporary, and the past and the present, as well as their encounters and bifurcations.

A Study of Necessity (Satsuma-Buttons and Self-Orientalism) deals with Satsuma buttons, which were exported from Japan to Western Europe in the late Edo period so as to satisfy the growing demand for Japanese products. Rewoven in Kyoto reintroduces a tablecloth woven in the Meiji period to the present. Dear Oblivion (A study of Empress Haruko) was inspired by a court dress worn by Empress Haruko who is known to be the first empress to have publically worn Western clothes as a symbolic gesture. And Flowery Obscurity (The Night Watch) references Rembrandt's The Night Watch and Indian “Sarasa” textiles.

All her new works have been produced in collaboration with the Kyoto Costume Institute (KCI), Kawashima Selkon Textiles, Kyoritsu Women's University Museum, and Textile Lab at Textile Museum in Tilburg, the Netherlands.

Tezuka examines Modern art and Modernity itself, posing questions both cleverly and elegantly. By using a technique that can be viewed as both ‘craft-like’ and ‘decorative,’ she challenges prevailing notions in the realm of art, where a hierarchy still exists. In this exhibition, Tezuka’s new trajectory is on display.

_{*This exhibition has been sponsored by the Tokyu Foundation and intends to show the outcome of the Goto Memorial Cultural Award for Emerging Artists.}