The KURA gallery of ISSEY MIYAKE KYOTO presents KURA Exhibition “HAND-DRAWN DYEING.”

The surface of the water where light shines faintly.
Every time the wind blows and the waves approach, it invites us to a long and swaying journey.

The ISSEY MIYAKE SPRING SUMMER 2022 collection “A Voyage in Descent” looks at a voyage that begins with a dive into the sea and continues through the silence and tranquility underwater to　sceneries yet to be discovered in the depth of the sea.
It presents this voyage with many materials and in many forms, including the never-ending flow and sway of water that are expressed by “hikizome (hand-drawn dyeing)” practiced by artisans in Kyoto.

As the patterns are drawn in dyes onto a damp fabric with a brush, the dyes blur and seep into the fabric freely. The patterns continue to change until the fabric is dry completely, creating beautiful gradients of colors. With an air sprayer, the artisans further blur and blend the dyes into the glistening fabric to create rich hikizome patterns reminiscent of an underwater landscape.

This exhibition presents the making process of hikizome in a video and the two patterns in fabrics. The two pieces of fabrics spread out, one above and the other below, to recreate the artisans’ workshop and also to bring to mind a mysterious underwater scene. Yield to it and behold the lively, ever-changing patterns of hikizome.