1 White Conduit Street London N1 9EL UK M. O775

1 White Conduit Street London N1 9EL UK M. O775 4486068 T. 020 7833 2591 www.whiteconduitprojects.uk
Tadashi Maruyama Kimono Fabric art and performance
“There should be a word to describe the unique world that exists in fabric”
Opening : Wednesday 15th April until Wednesday 24th May 2015
Maru learned his skills first from a kimono maker. He became so
fascinated by the special etiquette of the kimono world, as well
as the beauty of the rectangular (roughly 38x1300 cm) pieces of
fabric used to make the kimono, that he soon began to design
the fabric himself. His aim became to express the intrinsic quality
of the fabric as a material. Maru works a lot with Ojiya pongee, a
special type of silk, owning its unique matte texture to the hand
spun yarn it is woven with. Maru developed his own technique of
manipulating the silk fabric by spreading ash on top and going
through a process of tanning it with a roller. He believes that
hitting and marking the cloth brings out its beauty and a kind of
power that is like the core that silk essentially possesses.
Tadashi Maruyama reveals a unique world that exists in textiles.
In his performance he takes us on his journey to discover this world. In many ways, Tadashi Maruyama’s work can be placed among
modern western art and thought, where the artwork is no longer a concretization of material realities, but part of a process, an ongoing evolution of awareness.
Text : Dr. Daniela Zimmermann