works by saeki


Kazumi Saeki


The 2001 Knitting & Stitching Show: exhibited work	'Greens. Midori'	'Green Lights'
	'Colour & Light'
about my work: colour:	Colour is the most important thing for me. I take my inspiration from the natural things within my surroundings. Nature moves constantly every second. While watching these movements within nature, my eye will suddenly catch one moment of the scene and colourful image will appear in my mind that reflects what I see. This is how I find ideas for my work.
how I use colour in knitting:	There are various methods to use, but for these pieces, I chose to knit with several threads at once rather than knit with one thread. I found this combined thread resulted in a knitted surface which produced a much deeper effect, as if each character of the thread started to stand out more, even when the threads were of a similar quality. I can choose, however, to manipulate and control the colour effects in great detail by changing the combinations of different colours or qualities of yarn. It is fascinating to notice how one small change of a coloured thread can have the power to change the atmosphere of the work.
why I make clothes:	While I am knitting I picture the textures I am making as a flat surface. However, during the process of designing, it is essential for me to imagine the clothes as items to be worn, and to keep this in mind all the time I am making. Clothes become especially fascinating when people wear them, creating many shapes and shadows, which transform the original patterns on the flat surface into something completely different. It is this dynamic dimension of clothes that I find the most interesting.
Plain surface Muji	Another theme that I have been struggling with for many years is the plain surface.. Many people would regard a 'Pain Surface' as consisting of 'one colour', but I prefer to see this as the result of combining many colours together. For example, such a plain, dense surface will still appear differently in various reflected lights, as if some hidden colours from beneath its surface came out of hiding. Knitted surfaces have an appearance that is made by the existence of each stitch, and because this structure traps the light inside it I feel as if the colours appear from inside each stitch. Just as three colours can create endless colour combinations, I feel, many colours gathering together and influencing each other make one coloured plain surface. Exploring this theme, I made a piece entitled- 'Plain Surface' in 1994. I chose two type of yarns for this piece- one was a vegetable dyed boucle yarn, and the other was a chemical dyed straight and fine yarn. I used these to knit a check pattern. All the loops from boucle yarn dominated the entire surface, and the check pattern became hidden beneath. From some directions, the piece would appear as almost a plain coloured coat, but from other directions the check pattern would be suddenly exposed to the surface. When this piece was worn this effect became even more complex, influenced by the three dimensional shape of the human body and its movement. Following this my next challenge was to avoid using fancy yarns and to create a similar 'Plain Surface' just by using plain knitting and many colours.
new directions: title: 'Colour & Light'	There was a particular pattern on the surface of a piece I had made the previous year that left a strong impression on me and planted a clear image in my mind. In this work it was as if various colours hidden inside myself were melting, and flowing out into the open, and starting to form into some sort of indeterminate shapes. In 'Colour & Light' I wanted to create an impression of something chameleon that was hard and springy but also transparent, and able to change colour either slowly or quickly. In order to do this I decided to try and work with materials I hadn't used before. One of the materials I used was transparent nylon tubing, and I also tried, as I had done in previous pieces, to use film negative.. The colour green appears in my pieces over and over again, and I wanted to discover the hidden reason why I do this. I will need more time work these things out and to develop the ideas further into new pieces of work.
message:	Recently I realized that meeting people and hearing their varying opinions provides an energy that helps me to improve my own process of thinking, and might even make me a slightly better person. Although it is a struggle to discover my own thoughts amidst the confusion of so many choices, it is also a pleasure. Creating involves exploring inside myself, and perhaps through repeatedly thinking through the processes of making I can bring a greater simplicity to my life. The 'Knitting & Stitching Show' will provide the perfect opportunity to find out.