Lavinia Mustapha

Ichijirushi is a featherweight panel of handwoven silver wire and silk organza shapes. The shapes are the remains of another piece of the MA collection, which was laser cut in the pattern of a photograph of sunlight projected through an irregularly surfaced glass window. 

As Kenya Hara explains in his book, White, 'Ichijirushi is a clear and objective condition, which manifests itself in the purity of light, the lucidity embodied in a drop of water or the force of a crashing waterfall'. By utilising 'deconstructed' material and assembling it into a new surface, this piece seeks to emphasise the materiality of light, allowing it to engage with both the textile and the surrounding environment. 

The sheer nature of the silk simultaneously filters and reveals light, and the subtle shimmering wire reflects it, while giving movement and shape to the textile pieces. Overall this 'floating' panel wants to convey a sense of quiet beauty, and by playing on positive and negative space, is a reference to Japanese photographer Hiroshi Sugimoto's words, 'presence through absence'.