traveler 2013

traveler 2013

Years ago in Japan, I visited an exhibition about the ancient Roman city of Pompeii. The highlight was an impressive 15-faceted crystal excavated from a grave. Its structure and color were so extraordinary, I tore out a catalog clipping of its image and have carried it in my pocketbook every day since.

In June 2012, Espace Louis Vuitton in Tokyo hosted the exhibition, “Awakening,” in which Finnish artist Pekka Jylha presented several installations using cut crystals and light. “Art can be a way to see things in a different light, a possibility to see things more clearly,” he wrote.

Crystals led me to see anew. Their natural geometry and infinite iterations of pattern invited me to look at form, shape, and structure in a different way. This season’s colors take their cue from minerals: mica, graphite, quartz. Geometric outlines, like the kantha and patchwork, reference magnified crystalline patterns. The patchwork is engineered from a pre-existing patchwork, the original itself made from dosa scraps. Traditional handwork is used more purposefully, becoming not only decorative but structural. With every cycle of re-creation there is an intention to make things more essential.