For my third entry I looked at 'Textile Forum' which focuses on the use of textiles within contemporary art and design. I cam across an article on Toshiko Horiuchi Macadam, a Japanese artist who is part of the 'fiberarts' movement. People who are a part of the 'fiberarts' movement are known for their love of experiment, and when children took a great interest in one of Horiuchis pieces it opened up her mind to new ideas - "she discovered that art is suitable for practical use" too!
Above is a photo of one of the children's playground she created after she was inspired by the interaction of youngsters in her previous work. Horiuchi creates these interactive textile sculptures through the use of knitting and crotchet. As she knits, the use of repeat pattern is apparent and a wide array of colours are used to help capture the children's attention. The scale of her 'playground' pieces are large enough for numerous children to play on at once and durable showing a use of flexible material used to help withstand large amounts of strain (the Hakone play sculpture was used by approximately 6000 children each day!). Horiuchis sculptures appear ordered and mathematical, even though she is known for her experimental ideas, as a certain element of safety is needed to be suitable for interactions from children. However, regardless of her work being random or not, I do believe these numerous works are very successful. Not only does she give back to the community by bringing joy to the younger generations but she also got the opportunity to showcase her art work and present her impressive ideas on how art can be appreciated in numerous ways.
(KnitJapan. http://www.knitjapan.co.uk/features/c_zone/horiuchi/work.htm [24/09/13] )
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