CHIAKI DOSHO

I am making many works using several original techniques.  I think that it is very important that the work is original.

First I learned fashion and then I learned to quilt.  The quilt form gave me a big stimulus; with it I gradually was able to turn my quilts into more original art quilts.

In 1996 I studied textiles at Musashino Art University.  In 2000 I had my first solo exhibition. I learned how to exhibit and I learned to make a body of work. While making this work I began to think that being original is very important.

I like fashion very much. I am familiar with fashion materials and techniques. I started to use them for my work.  I also learned weaving, dyeing and photography.  I find it fresh and fun to learn what I don’t know.  My work production begins with “What if I do this?”  I like experiments.  My work started with patchwork quilt and became fiber art. I think it is important to try everything.  Next I began to think about what is most original to me.

I am Japanese. I live in Japan. There is a culture of wonderful kimono in Japan. However, since kimono requires many artisan's techniques, it is very expensive. Young people are not wearing kimonos much. The old kimonos are sold at the antique market, or they are thrown away. I wanted to use these many wonderful kimonos. At first, I got kimonos by my mother and my aunt. Next I began to buy them at antique shops and markets. Friends gifted their kimonos to me too, and today, happily, I have a nice collection.

When I use a kimono, first, I unravel it and next I will make it into a cloth. Many kimonos are silk. There are also cotton, hemp, chemical fiber. Silk is my favorite, in particular. Silk has gentleness and suppleness. It has strength. Dyeing it is very beautiful.

When I am working with a kimono, I talk to the kimono. The kimono tells me much about the wonderful people who were a part of its history: the designer, the dyer, the tailor, the life and personality of the people who bought it, the background of the times. Kimono is not just a cloth. It is also history. I will make a work with that wonderful material.

I am making many works with a method called Direct Applique. I place quilted cotton on a backing cloth, and directly sew a small cut cloth on it. I use the sewing machine a lot, but I also often add large hand stitched embroidery stitches. Sometimes, I dye and paint with ink. Japanese inks are wonderful.  I love them.

The predominating theme to my work has been shaped by life and death.   As I grew older, I often encountered the deaths of my precious people. With that, I started thinking of my life and death.

I am always working in a series, and I have several of them.

One series is about cherry blossoms. For the Japanese people, cherry blossoms are special trees. It is said that cherry trees have spirits from long ago in Japan. This work of “Sumie-Cherry Blossom” imagines the cherry blossom petals, so I cut the cloth into small pieces and piled them up.  Now the work gradually changes into a more 3-dimensional form. The petals are like a falling waterfall from the sea of time.  The cherry blossom series uses old Japanese kimonos, and I draw and dye with Sumi ink on the cloth.  The colors include pink, white, and black.

A second series is called  "Light & Dark" .  I believe that all life is made up of light and darkness. I sew small cut squares of cloth directly onto a back-cloth of cotton to quilt.  I sew one by one closely next to each other, and in this way the squares next to each other ‘stand up’. The threads that hang to the surface are the starting and ending threads from a machine stitched line.  I give generous lengths to these threads before cutting them. With this technique the thread holds the meaning of the work. It has the same meaning as painter's paint.

The third series is called the  "Garret" series.  It speaks to the many things left behind in the old attic.  This could be a sepia colored picture, a dress that has been tucked away by the owner, a stick, a mirror ,and so on. History and time are confined there. I use shrinking sheets and films, and include other techniques such as washing, discharge and painting.

My fourth series  is called, “The Crossing Times".  I am making many works now in this series. This piece juxtaposes two different techniques I learned from “Cherry Blossom” and “Light and Dark” series in addition to some original techniques.  

This is an installation of flower combinations. 

I like to do a lot of new experiments. A new challenge gives me a fresh pleasure and great fulfillment.  I will not stop until I have ideas and examples for a work that I really want to make.  To me, making my work is really living at my best.  I feel I'm really happy that I met Fiber Art.

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