Chiyoko Tanaka

Statement:
"For me the act of weaving, as the weft threads accumulate one by one, is a representation of time passing away; texture acting as the locus of the present time. Finally, a piece of fabric is the result, the existence of which I regard as the expression of my sensitivity. To be specific, weaving for me should be the process of transforming the weft into accumulated space replacing the vanishing of time. Placing the fabric on the ground, I trace out the ground texture and surface of the fabric. The act of tracing is a transformation of time coherence into space and grinding is the transformation of space coherence into time. The final color of the surface is not so important, more the effect achieved by the application of a certain soil, charcoal or choice of tool which helped translate the texture of the ground more readily into my “canvas." The true past tense of the verb to grind, “ground," also implies the earth, which can be used to embed, implant, erode and emboss its own surface into my work."

Selected collections and exhibition venues:
Museum of Modern Art, New York, New York (Structure and Surface: Contemporary Textiles); Art Institute of Chicago, Illinois (Focus on Fiber: Selections from the Growing 20th Century Collection); St. Louis Museum of Art, Missouri; the Israel Museum, Jerusalem; Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam, the Netherlands; Kyoto Municipal Museum of Art, Japan; Central Museum of Textiles, Lodz, Poland (International Triennial of Tapestry); Museum of Arts and Crafts, Hamburg, Germany; Canberra Museum and Gallery, Australia; Museum het Princessehof, Leeuwarden, the Netherlands (Kohyama and Tanaka: Contemporary Ceramics and Textile Art from Japan); Ruthin Craft Centre, Denbigshire, England (Interface: An Exhibition of International Art Textiles); Bankfield Museum, Halifax, England (TexturalSPACE – traveling exhibition). Recipient: Bronze Medal, 6th International Triennial of Tapestry.