Making NUNO Textiles

Image: Sudo Reiko, (c) Kosuke Tamura.

The current exhibition at CHAT, Hong Kong, celebrates the work of Japanese textile designer Sudo Reiko. As the design director of textile design firm NUNO in Tokyo, Reiko produces innovative textiles, integrating traditional craft into textile making with new materials and techniques.

In addition to common materials such as cotton, silk, wool and polyester, Reiko uses the unconventional, including washi, the traditional Japanese paper, and employs alternative applications of textile techniques including heating and needle punching. Her fabrics are experimental yet practical and beautifully elaborate, thus are applied to a wide range of uses from furnishings in public areas, hotels and shops to clothing and accessories.

Reiko has been recognised globally for her commitment to the preservation and revitalisation of traditional craftsmanship and fabric recycling. Through new designs, she has revived old Japanese textile machines and techniques which are on the verge of disappearing. To address the problem of textile waste, she has often created new designs out of textiles damaged during the process of production.

Image: Sudo Reiko, Jellyfish (1993) (c) Sue McNab.

The exhibition will present the creative process behind Sudo Reiko’s nuno (textiles/fabrics) through her drawings and sketches, raw materials and design prototypes, as well as video and immersive sound and visual installations. In The Hall of The Mills, visitors are welcomed by an immersive installation of over 80 koi nobori (carp streamers) swimming in the air, all made with NUNO fabrics. This installation is designed by Adrien Gardère, the designer, museographer and founder of Studio Adrien Gardère, who has partnered with Reiko since 2005 in US, France and Japan.

Sudo Reiko: Making NUNO Textiles, until 23 February 2020. For more information, visit www.mill6chat.org