kimono design for Laura  2017

Embroidery on silkscreen

14 x 17 inches​

 

Send it on is the attempt at a response to a book of Poetry during the Heian Period. It is during the time of the infamous Sei Shonagun and her Pillow Book. Supposedly this was the time of a huge aristocratic court system where the individuals ability to display their aesthetic sensibility was the only means of success. One was allowed to have as many lovers as one wanted as long as you kept the relationship secret. 

 

"Encounters between the opposite sex had to be completely initiated through poetry letters and supposedly the, “first night together was according to established etiquette, sleepless; lovemaking and talk were expected to continue without pause until the man, protesting the nights brevity, departed in the first light of the predawn. Even then he was not free to turn his thoughts to the day’s official duties: a morning after poem had to be written and sent off by means of an ever-present messanger page, who would return with the woman’s reply. Only after this exchange had been completed could the night’s successes be fully judged by whether the poems were equally ardent and accomplished, referring in image and nuance to the themes of the night just passed.” 

 

This piece is also responding to the traditional fabric books where in Japan one would select their Komono Fabric. The pattern created here is the first out of five, which I created to discuss my relationship with one of my past college lab partners who I am still friends with today. Creating a fantastical mirror world of exchange based on this past court period.