Wabi Sabi
Yesterday or the day before I mentioned two links on Flickr to the work of weavers that utterly sends me. Out of the thousands of posted photos by textile artists/weavers from around the world these two happened to both be Japanese. I have been mulling this over for awhile and I keep going back to the notion of wabi sabi and shibui in Japanese aesthetics. These are Japanese terms that incompass many aesthetic elements such as imperfection, mutability, asymmetry, the appearance of age, indescribability and my new favorite – serene melancholy. For me – weaving itself has some of these qualities. The indescribable feeling that textiles evoke that makes me think weaving/yarn/knitting must be in our (human beings’) DNA. The sense that textiles give of comfort and ornament while subtly telegraphing our need for protection, covering, warmth – our vulnerability – our mortality – serene melancholy.
