Photographer:Yuji Watanabe
Hair:Chika Kimura
Make:Nao Yoshida
Model: Olga@Yoshi Inc
Hello from England!
I ended up being totally rubbish at updating the blog...the reality is I got too wrapped up in work and almost set up camp in the studio and didn't have time to keep the updates coming! eekers! Last month I came to the end of my stay as Artist in Residence at the Mino Paper Art Village Project and jetted back to the UK for Christmas! My new series of work was eventually showcased at the Mino Washi Museum and the exhibition titled 'Let Momo Eat Cake' was wrapped up last week. Prior to the exhibition opening I carried out the final phase of my project up in Tokyo which was awesome! I worked with a great creative team in producing the above series of images which were additionally showcased at the Museum alongside the original pieces. Tokyo was so much fun! I returned to the same ryokan that I stayed in 5 years ago during my first ever trip to Japan and did a whole bunch of shopping, sightseeing, tracking down yummy veggie food and generally having an extravaganza!
This is the official juice all about my project and the new collection:
'The concept behind 'Colourful Creatures are often Poisonous...' was to utilise Mino Washi in terms of a collaboration between traditional and contemporary materials. My ethos was to combine locally produced paper with unconventional fabrics, techniques and silhouettes to generate an overall collection of garments that represent a fusion of established craft and experimental fashion and textile design.
Mino washi is featured in each piece of the collection and combined materials include polypropylene , vintage kimono fabric, latex, PVC, lurex and metal trimmings. Inclusive techniques involve print, embroidery, crochet, knit, hand embellishment and weaving.
Mino City acted as a muse for my works and prior research. Influences included landscape tones and form in which I translated mountains into colourful geometric layered shapes and used saturated hues derived from my environments and surroundings in Mino. Experiences with the local wildlife encouraged an exploration of various protection techniques used by animals and humans. The notion that often in nature, plants and animals use bright colours to exude the impression of being toxic to predators, provided the basis for my colour palette and this was combined with the human technique of using bells to alert nearby creatures of their presence. '
Super happy that the new work has received a great response as I loved working on these pieces and working with a whole new medium... here's a couple of bits of new press...
And here's a couple of snaps from the exhibition itself...
I guess that's it! I'll totally miss Japan especially things like the vending machines, 100 yen stores, the multitude of novelty socks available, trashy TV, purikura machines, veggie sushi, matcha latte, red bean paste....well I could go on forever! The past 3 months were a great experience both challanging and action packed...I look forward to hopefully returning to Japan!!!
So I guess that's where this blog ends...unless I get the chance to eventually upload the ridiculous amount of photos I took in Tokyo...but don't hold your breath!
For all further juice and updates go and hit up my regular blog:
http://www.emma-bell.blogspot.com
or my website!
www.emma-bell.com
Next stop is Taiwan for my upcoming project...so keep an eye out for gossip live from Taipei!
Love and Mochi
Emma
xxxx
