Haze

Haze was a commissioned work for the Echigo-Tsumari Art Triennale in 2006. In that year I spent a month in the Matsuyama area of  Echigo-Tsumari, which is renowned for growing rice. The summers are extremely hot and humid and winters have extreme snowfalls.

Haze is a large wooden structure hung with 500 stitched red woollen panels. I designed a series of embroideries based on traditional everyday objects – snow boots, hats, cloaks, bags, baskets - woven from local grasses and plant fibres. To create the embroideries I worked with the local community and volunteers, using traditional sashiko stitching. Partcipants interpreted my designs and developed their own.

The Japanese word ‘haze’ is a wooden structure used for drying the rice after harvest in the autumn. Replacing the rice on the ‘haze’ with wool linked two staple commodities, rice from Japan and wool from Australia. Japan is important trading partner in fine merino wool with Australia.