Extraordinary Embroidery

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Satoru Aoyama 

Born in Tokyo in 1973, Aoyama completed his BA at Goldsmiths College, London in 1998 and his MA at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago in 2002. Over the years, he has developed some highly original ideas and methods. He believes the black of thread is deeper than the black of any pigment and pursues that depth of blackness through the use of embroidery. It seems the understanding of shade, like the analysing of colour, is a significant process for his works. Speaking of colour, he creates his hues not as a result of mixing of pigments, as with painting, but by an assemblage of fine ‘Pointillistic’ stitches, like pixels on a computer monitor. Encountering his work, questions relating to his medium naturally came up for me. I asked him whether he dyes his own thread to get precise colours and about the limitation that embroidery imposes on colour expression. He says, “I haven’t dyed my own thread as there are many shades of ready-made thread available. I do sometimes feel a deficiency of colour gradation in thread but I can usually solve this problem by using different combinations of upper-thread and lower-thread in my sewing machine”.

http://www.tokyoartbeat.com/tablog/entries.en/2007/10/satoru-aoyama-embroidering-the-traditional-and-the-contemporary.html

I see embroidery as a contemporary method in art that illustrates my artistic thought. To be honest, I’ve never been influenced by the craft tradition. I don’t mind if people want to use my work to discuss the similarities of art and craft, though, because it is open to interpretation.

I studied in the textile department in art school where I learned this technique in during my sophomore year. I take a photograph of of the subject I want to emboirder then trace the contour and embroider it using a sewing machine. I use polyester thread and polyester organza.

Hung. S and Maliagro. J (2007) By Hand- the use of Craft in Contemporary Art Princetown Archetectural Press

Mizuma Gallery

Filed under embroidery photorealism satoru aoyama tokyo ring art craft mizuma gallery