Wednesday, November 16, 2011

Textile Inspiration

Textile art in the church is often limited to needlepoint kneelers and homemade banners, but witness the ethereal splendor of Toshiko Horiuchi's handknit installations:


'Fibre Columns/Romanesque Church'
sprang, nylon rope - 15' x 90' x 12'

'Luminous Column', exhibited at 'Fabric in Space'
Tokyo Metropolitan Art Museum.
1987

'Atmosphere of the Floating Cube'  - knitted gold & silver Mylar with linen. National Museum of Modern art, Kyoto.  

An essential part of all of these installations is the lighting that brings them to life; in this case carefully placed floodlights.  Churches installing any form of art should consider the lighting of the piece as integral to the art itself.   

Even with the resurgence of the knitted arts and yarn bombings everywhere, I haven't seen any recent applications of knitted textiles to religious spaces.  Horiuchi's work is from twenty years ago; here's hoping some modern textile artists will follow.
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