Emi Nakamura

Fushiginoiroito

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'Meeting Points'

 

   
  

Materials: Cotton Thread 
Techniques: Crochet   
Size: 1. (S shapes small) D12cm x W21cm x H9cm
2. (Tube) D 9cm x W 9cm x H20cm
3. (Coil shaped) D30cm x W23cm x H14cm
4. (S shapes large) D35cm x W60cm x H12cm 
Date Made: 1998
While making this piece, my understanding of knitting structures changed. Until then I had thought knitting was the result of building up stitches one by one. From this point on, however, my view changed and I began to think of knitting as a drawing made by a single thread.

I was searching for a particular thread, - one that would show each stitch and trace of knitted movement clearly and beautifully. After experimenting with various threads, I chose a tightly spun, unbleached cotton thread, commonly referred to as 'kite thread'. This wasn't really suitable for hand knitting and was such a struggle to use that my body was often stiff. The end result, however, was excellent, allowing the patterns I was trying to make appear on the surface without any extra embellishment.

Even the most gently flowing river will change character when it converges with another one, bursting out with dynamic energy and power, waving and swirling like a storm. I thought this image of rivers meeting could symbolize how we ourselves behave when we meet together in human society, and possibly I could mirror the idea through the movements of thread. These pieces use one thread to show two contrasting patterns of movement: on the one hand there is a systematic order and stillness whilst on the other there is turbulence and complex movement.