Fall Update: Japan residency, Ann's exhibition at the Park Avenue Armory

It has been an exciting fall! 

Japan Residency Next Summer

I learned a while ago that I was selected for a one-month residency at Artist in Residence Yamanashi (AIRY) in Kofu-city, Japan! I will be traveling there from mid-June to late July, and will be studying shibori dyeing techniques at their relationship to my slip drawings. I am hoping to travel to Arimatsu, a small village that has collectively made shibori for 400 years. (Interestingly, I had not studied shibori patterns at all before making my slip drawings.) For comparison:

late 19th / early 20th centure Itajime shibori

my slip drawings on rice paper

This is such a dream come true - I have long felt a resonance with Japanese aesthetics and sensibilities, and feel so lucky to experience them in person. 

Here are a few pictures from the residency website:

AIRY is in the foothills of Mt. Fuji

Working on the rooftop

After the residency, I will travel to Kyoto and Tokyo with the US-Japan Leadership Program. I am so looking forward to seeing all the delegates from last year, and meeting the new delegates. It promises to be as fantastic as (if not more than) this year's conference in Seattle!

Ann Hamilton's the event of a thread

After months of intense preparation, we finally launched Ann's massive new project at the Park Avenue Armory title the event of a thread. (Fun fact: if you click this link, those are my hands!) Sometimes I stop and marvel that I get to help make things like this happen.

Here's a great slide show of images from the Armory, and there was a fantastic review in the New York Times. For those if you who didn't get to experience it in person, the NYT also put together a video.

The show has come down now, but I was lucky to spend a few days with it in New York. Several friends from USJLP come to see it (thanks guys!), and I feel privileged to have been there before the huge crowds starting coming in. It was a profoundly fluid piece that directly reflects the energy of the room, so quiet mornings on the swings were a treat - a lovely contrast to the fervent spirit of the bustling afternoons. Such an amazing experience to see from the inside how something of this scale happens! I am so fortunate.