Yui Yaegashi
Tsumugi
2023
Fabric stamping on paper
Matted / Unframed
26 × 20.4 cm (mat included)
Edition of 10 copies numbered and signed by the artist, plus 5 artist’s proofs
Related edition: Lace
For Tsumugi and Lace, Yui Yaegashi returned to the very material that informs her artistic practice: textiles. The possibilities offered by the structure of the grid and the creation of patterns through layering are indeed essential to the composition of her delicately crafted paintings. The artist has long collected pieces of fabrics and assembled them in notebooks, referring to them as a sort of distant sketches.
The stamping technique used for these two editions makes even more clear the material connection between her body of work and its “source.” Turned into printing plates, the pieces of fabric are directly and manually transferred onto the paper, reproducing with an extraordinary precision the intricate, vibrant texture of the tsumugi (a traditional silk pongee) or the mesmerizing mesh of the lace. In both cases, due to the fineness of the material and the means of its transfer, the threads almost appear like halftone dots, as if they were mechanically printed, momentarily blurring the distinction between weaving, printing, and painting.
Yui Yaegashi’s exhibition took place at Shūrinkan from June 25 to September 24, 2023.