JOURNALS

Curator Lesley Millar
Photo: Damian ChapmanAlthough this is the first entry for all those taking part in the Cultex project, we have actually been working on the project for about eighteen months and so my first Journal entry is one that gives the background and sets the scene.

I have had the privilege of working with two of the artists previously, on Through the Surface, the project that could be considered to have ‘given birth’ to Cultex. Through the Surface paired, in a mentoring exchange, young emerging artists from one country with more established artists from a different country. One of those pairings consisted of the highly respected Japanese artist Machiko Agano and the emerging Norwegian artist Anniken Amundsen. Their working relationship was extremely successful and the work made as a result of the exchange came to represent the aspirations of the project, in that it was both a conceptual and material manifestation of cross-cultural and trans-national collaboration.

Since the ending of Through the Surface, Machiko and Anniken have maintained contact and built upon their working relationship, to the extent that 4 years later they felt it would be appropriate to collaborate again. However this time it would be as partners, rather than Mentor and Mentoree as both are now established artists within a national and international context.

I had also continued to be in close touch with the two and was delighted to be included in the early discussions about a new project. Where the previous project has included artists living in UK and in Japan, Cultex would focus on those from Norway and Japan. Anniken introduced me to the work two other artists from Norway who were interested in the project: Gabriella Göransson and Eva Schjølberg, and I undertook to research and identify possible partners for them in Japan.

In my own research into textile as a medium defining differences and connections I have become increasingly interested in the importance of cloth as a medium of communication that transcends geographical and cultural boundaries. Initial discussion with the three Norwegian artists confirmed my understanding that there are many points of connection between Japan and Norway based in the historic and cultural relationship with nature. I know that the work of Anniken has it origination in organic form, and could see that the same is true of Gabriella and Eva and that the three make strong references to light and space – all of which again links with the Japanese approaches. These observations and understanding were my starting points in thinking about partners for Gabriella and Eva. 
There were several artists that I had in mind, but two: Kiyonori Shimada and Yuka Kawai, consistently fulfilled the ‘check-points’ I had listed. On a trip to Japan in November 2006 for my last project, Cloth & Culture Now, I arranged to meet these two Japanese artists to discuss their possible involvement. In my mind I had already ‘paired’ them, but wanted to hear if my intuitive partnering would be the natural choice for the two Japanese, so had sent the details of both Gabriella and Eva to both. In the event my intuition was exactly right - Kiyonori Shimada had selected Gabriella as the person he felt most in tune with and Yuka Kawai had hoped that Eva would be the partner for her.

Since that time we have been slowly working towards the project going live through the website. Funding has been the most absorbing issue, particularly for the artists in Norway, where the majority of the funding has been raised, and in this we have been wonderfully supported by Anne Wiland. Now we have enough funding in place to launch the website, which is where our public face will be until next year when the exhibition of work made will be shown in Norway at Gallery F15, Jeløya, and we are working hard on putting in place a tour to one other venue in Norway, then to the UK, followed by Japan.

Alongside regular reflective Journals in which the artists will document the progress of the project from their own particular perspective, they will also exchange ideas through email and will work together for short periods in each other’s studios.  You will see that the first Journal entry from each of the artists is a response to the work of their partner. In this I hope that each written piece about the work of the partner artist will not only serve to introduce the reader to that work with the eye of one describing work which is not their own, but for which they have an affinity through their own practice - but also to focus each artist on where they locate their own practice in relation to the other.

There is no expectation that the work created will be a collaborative piece, although it might be, only that it is as a result of that exchange. The language of textile making will be vital to the project as for some partners that is the only common language, as they do not speak each other’s language or, the public language of the project, English. All six of the artists are established in their practice and have perhaps reached a moment in their creative life when the challenge of a cross-cultural exchange through the medium of textile will act as a catalyst, or a confirmation of embedded approaches. At this point none of us knows, but it will make a fascinating narrative that I hope you will follow with us.

I am very much looking forward to the next instalment.

Lesley Millar
Professor of Textile Culture
University for the Creative Arts