Shibori progress - ワークショップの報告と展示のお知らせ

Visual research: **Shibori Lab** 
Date: March 13th 2010 
Location: rad, Kyoto 
Time: 9:00 - 19:00 
  
What are the ideas and images associated with Japanese and Western clothing in Japan? 
The Shibori Lab examines this question by taking cultural, historical, social and political aspects into account. The traditional Japanese Shibori technique is the main focus of the event, and is used as a tool to re-define the perception of fashion. 
Shibori is the Japanese word for various ways of decorating textiles by shaping cloth and securing it before dyeing it with pigment. The word comes from the verb shiboru, "to wring, squeeze, press." This verb stresses the action performed on fabric; the process of manipulating fabric. Rather than treating the material as a two-dimensional surface, it is given a three-dimensional form by folding, crumpling, stitching or plaiting. Chance and accident are important elements. Adapting and shifting the traditional technique into a modern-day approach is of high importance during the Shibori Lab. Instead of using new plain fabric, second hand everyday clothing such as white jackets, shirts and pants are used as raw material. Also the usually long and individual process of making Shibori is transformed into a short and collective action during the Lab. 
On the 13th of March six white outfits were compiled by the participants. Each outfit was folded, knotted and crumpled together by a group of people, and then the entire outfit dyed in indigo pigment. The outfits were then returned to their two-dimensional form. The design that emerged is the result of the three-dimensional shape of the clothing, the type of resist and the amount of pressure exerted by the group of people who secured the shape during the clothing's exposure to the dye. The clothing sensitively records both the shape and the pressure; it is the memory of the shape that remains imprinted, and the design on the clothing reflects the interaction of the people. Now, after the one-day event all the mass-produced clothing has a unique indigo imprint. 
  
日本の服／西洋の服と聞いて、思い浮かべるアイデアやイメージにはどんなものがあるでしょうか？
「Shibori Lab」ワークショップでは、文化的、歴史的、社会的、政治的といった様々な側面に考慮しながらこの問いへと向かいました。主眼とすべきは、伝統的な染色技法である「絞り染め」を用い、ファッションにまつわる認識の再定義を試みることです。 

  伝統的な技術を現代的なアプローチに適用させることが今回のワークショップの眼目であり、使用する素材も「新品の」生地ではなく、白いジャケットやシャ ツ、ズボン等(もともと西洋的な)の古着を使用しました。 更に、通常は長時間を要する「絞り染め」の個人的過程を、短時間の協同的なアクションに転換しました。