Silk artists

My friend Kath and I took in an amazing show at the Vancouver Art Gallery on the weekend. It was a Korean artist I'd never heard of by the name Kim-Soo-Ja.  She is well known in New York for her innovative work with silk fabrics, notably Korean wedding cloths.  

In one installation she hung these ancient fabrics from lines in a room with wavery mirrors on each side, allowing people to thread their way through.  It was a meditative experience.

Part of the show included some video. I liked the four-screen video called Mumbai Laundry, with scenes from different parts of India. One screen focused on the outdoor laundry area where men and women scrub and rinse incredibly coloured saris. 

Another video showed the artist picking up silk bedspreads from the ground and forming them into huge bundles. These are the traditional way of carrying goods in rural Korea.

After seeing the show we went home to Kath's house and I discovered that her living room floor was covered in silk. Kath is an artist and has worked with silk in the past. Recently she took some of the pieced work out to look at it again.  Here's what it looks like spread out on her floor.  

There is something so sensual about silks.  The colours and the sheen and the irridescence are transcendent, don't you think?

I can't wait to see what Kath will do with these resurrected pieces of gorgeous silk.