Hideho Tanaka

"Why did I start thinking about fiber art as a medium? It was partly because I was attracted to the idea of expressing myself in a subtle yet intractable material, but I was also intrigued by the challenge of turning something accidental into a deliberate work of art .… I'm acutely aware of accidents that actually help me achieve the expression I was striving for and other accidents that take my work in a completely different direction. This experience helps me to better understand the concept of tariki, the idea that a piece of art often comes our best when the artist entrusts as much as possible to the materials," and lets things take their natural course."

Adapted from Future Fibers: Japan's Textile Pioneers (Japan Society, New York, distributed Yale University Press 2011).

Selected collections:

Museum of Contemporary Art of Morella, Mexico; Erie Art Museum, Pennsylvania; Museum of Arts and Design, New York, New York; LongHouse Reserve, East Hampton, New York; St. Louis Art Museum, Missouri; Abashiri Art Museum, Japan. Exhibition venues: Jean Lur t Contemporary Tapestry Museum, Angers, France; Japan Society, New York, New York; Metropolitan Museum of Art, Tokyo, Japan; Hara Museum of Contemporary Art, Tokyo, Japan; Metropolitan Museum of Manila, Philippines; San Francisco Museum of Craft and Folk Art, California; Tacoma Art Museum, Washington; Minneapolis Institute of Arts, Minnesota; Musashino Art University Museum and Library, Tokyo, Japan; Central Museum of Textiles, Łódź, Poland; Singapore Art Museum; Design Museum, Helsinki, Finland; Textile Museum, Krefeld, Germany; Banff Art Center, Canada.