Ana Jotta

Missing Pieces

Name: Missing Pieces - Ana Jotta
Brand: Keijiban
Price: 67.500000 EUR
Availability: InStock

2023

Hand-dyed tenugui and leporello sleeve

Unfolded: 90 x 37 and 60.3 x 23 cm
Folded: 12 x 22.5 and 15.3 x 23 cm

Edition of 100 copies, numbered and stamp signed with an original hanko seal

Limited edition available here

Price

€67.50

Tax included・Free shipping in Japan

The edition

A tenugui (手拭い) is a Japanese traditional cloth made from cotton. Although te (手) means “hand” and nugui (拭い) means “wiping,” it is much more than just a hand towel. Since the eighth century at least, it has been used as a washcloth, dishcloth, headband, protective wrapping, or decorative item, among many other uses. Its unhemmed edges allow it to dry fast, and to be torn for use as a bandage, for example.

This tenugui was hand-dyed using the chūsen method, in which the color soaks into the cloth in such a way that the pattern appears clearly on both sides, unlike in modern printing techniques. Furthermore, it was made following a specific and delicate process called hosokawa-zome, in which two colors can be applied side by side or on top of one another without their blending. The cloth is dyed twice, and washed and dried in between. Since the drying causes the cloth and its first pattern to shift, the second layer of color overlaps in slightly unexpected ways. This feature highlights the skills of the artisan and makes each item unique.

Missing pieces is a work of illusion, in which a seemingly innocent decorative pattern lies at the center of an elaborate device made of reversible paper and textile. In line with Loves me, Loves me not…, her previous tenugui edition for Keijiban, Ana Jotta reveals the properties of the dying techniques in this new work. The colorful garland was indeed dyed in two phases, so that the various tints touch, but do not bleed into each other. The leporello sleeve alludes to the first stage of production, in which half of the discs are still missing. Also, the garland is somehow reversed on the paper sleeve, thereby constituting a negative of the tenugui. The variety of colors make way for white bubbles or, more likely, empty stages that allow the artist – or anyone else – to let their imagination run free.

The artist

Ana Jotta was born in 1946. She currently lives in Lisbon.

Since the 1980s, Ana Jotta has been developing a fascinating and undisciplined body of work. Although she likes to paint and draw, her favorite activity consists of collecting images, objects and words. Like some sort of visual DJ, she extracts, digests, mix, transforms and recontextualizes elements from various sources, popular and learned combined, saving them from oblivion while revitalizing them.

Her shows include embroidery, photographs, wallpapers, collages and assemblages, all elements crafted and displayed in such a way that the artist (her hand, her ego, her “style”) seems to play hide-and-seek with the viewers. Indeed, through her works, Ana Jotta invites us to engage in playful and insightful explorations of not only our visual culture and art history, but also her secretive and exuberant mind.

One of Portugal’s most prominent artists, she has had retrospective exhibitions at the Museu de Serralves (Porto) in 2005 and Culturgest (Lisbon) in 2014. She has also gained international recognition through major shows in Austria, France, Germany, UK, etc. This is the second time her work is shown in Japan: in 1997, she exhibited in the late “Sagacho exhibition space.”

Recent solo shows include Don’t flinch, don’t fall, leave the light on, greengrassi, London, UK, 2019 ; Parterre, Guimarães, Vienna, Austria, 2019 ; DAS - IST - DAS?, Temporary Gallery, Cologne, Germany, 2018 ; Portuguese handicraft, Etablissement d'en face, Brussels, Belgium, 2016 ; TI RE LI RE, Le Crédac, Ivry-Sur-Seine, France, 2016.

Ana Jotta is represented by Miguel Nabinho Gallery (Lisbon), ProjecteSD (Barcelona), and greengrassi (London).

The exhibition