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Ai Kijima Ai Kijima is a Japanese born textile artist currently living in Chicago. A self-confessed fabric addict, Ai’s distinctive works are chaotic collages: amalgamations of found material painstakingly stitched into evocative cross-cultural patchworks.
Her work often employs iconic imagery derived from current and recently discarded popular culture, and she sometimes juxtaposes these garish images with fabrics from her collection of vintage kimonos, lovingly compiled over many years from the flea markets of Tokyo.
PIXELSURGEON: Can you start by telling us a little about your background? I know you grew up in Tokyo and then moved to Chicago later in life. What motivated this move? How old were you when you moved, and what are your memories of your first impressions of the differences between Japan and America. I would imagine you must have experienced some degree of "culture shock".
AI KIJIMA: I was born and raised in Tokyo, Japan. When I was a senior at high school, I became a foreign exchange student in a small town in Wisconsin in Midwest. The population of the town was about 7,000 with the larger majority Caucasian as well as my host family. The whole environment was quite different from Tokyo. For me, the biggest difference between Japan and America was the amount of space. Besides the larger open spaces in the US, I don't think I ever experienced huge culture shock. I am the type of person who can adapt and bridge the differences between the worlds easily - which is also what my art is about.
In your work you use a lot of textile techniques, in particular, quilting, weaving and screen-printing. When did you become interested in working with textiles and what got you started?
My grandmother taught me how to sew, crochet and knit when I was little. As a child I would spend hours at the craft stores. Although I made lots of clothing for myself when I was a teen, I had never considered pursuing it in my education and as a profession until my art teacher in Wisconsin recommended art school. Throughout my entire life, I have been addicted to the color, images and patterns of fabric. It's natural for me to work with textiles.
I understand you are currently a graduate student at The School of the Art Institute of Chicago, and have been very busy recently getting your degree show together. Are you pleased with how the show has come together and can you tell us a bit about the work you got together for it? Also, where, when and what did you study previously for your undergraduate training? And how do your experiences of undergraduate and postgraduate study compare?
After my student exchange in Wisconsin, I moved to Chicago to attend the School of the Art Institute of Chicago in early 90s. Last month, I graduated from The School of the Art Institute of Chicago with a Master of Fine Arts degree. Currently, I work for the Department of Textiles at The Art Institute of Chicago as Department Specialist, part time. For my graduate exhibition I made a four foot by eleven foot stitched and collaged piece that you can see at here.
Some exceptional qualities about my training at The School of the Art Institute are the independent inquiry and interdisciplinary curriculum that is available throughout departments and media. Students can take any classes from any department they are interested in. When I was an undergraduate, I took various classes including painting/drawing, photography, performance, fashion, ceramics and fiber. I think this experience helped me to break boundaries and develop my ideas. Now that school is over, I feel prepared to begin a career as a professional studio artist.
In your work you use a lot of "found" materials such as children's bed sheets and duvet covers, old curtains and kimonos. Do you spend a lot of time hunting for these materials? I imagine you searching around in charity shops and car boot sales for material you can use. Is this what happens? Or do the materials come from your own life? Curtains from an old house perhaps, or bed sheets that your own children have outgrown?
I am addicted to fabric of any kind but I especially love old, vintage stuff. I have a collection of vintage kimono fabric that I collected at the flea markets in Tokyo for years. Since I moved to Chicago, it's my routine to visit a couple of thrift stores once a week. I can spend hours at a time hunting for these items.
Your choices of found materials are very interesting and immediately stand out as intriguing because they seem rather surreal and incongruous with the style and technique of the work. A lot of the archetypal icons of American childhood are present in your work. There is Santa Claus, a whole host of Disney characters, Spiderman, Harry Potter, and even Thomas the Tank Engine. What draws you to depict these characters so prominently in your work? Is this an outsider's perspective on American culture, or simply a celebration of childhood? One of the things I notice is that a lot of the elements you use are synonymous to many people with the excesses of American capitalism and particularly with the way that consumerism is forced onto people from early childhood through aggressive marketing. For instance, Coca-Cola, Disney and Hollywood, companies or institutions that forcefully market themselves to young people all over the world and that have become purveyors of global pulp consumerist culture, are strongly represented in your work. Is there a darker message in your work concerning the global penetration of American style pulp culture and consumerism?
Recycling bed sheets, curtains, clothes, and other assorted scrap materials into a machine quilted collage, I appropriate the traditional quilting practice into the context of contemporary pop art. I interweave and manipulate preexisting materials from the range of subculture zones to transcend the limitations of the existing standards of values. Blurring the received meanings from mass culture with an ambiguous poetic view, I constantly invent innovative perspectives to reveal the core of humanity and a deeply personal vision of the world.
When I started to collect images from pop culture, I wasn't so sure I was going to use them for my artwork but I just couldn't resist having those images. In 2002, I started to use popular images in my work. I remember deciding to make art that contained a universal point of view that is larger than my own perspective as a woman and Japanese native. I use popular images because they are an accessible language for many people. I am trying to present the world around me, the world full of contradictions, without having any particular moral position.
There are also Japanese elements in your work: Kimonos, Manga characters, stylistic details. Is there a relationship or tension between these details and the parts of Americana you use? Is there some kind of autobiographical story being told here about your own experiences in Japan and America through the collage elements you use?
I grew up in Japan but without denying the Japanese heritage in my blood, I would rather remain anonymous. I believe that having a new way of looking at the world is important for all of us and what I am trying to present in my work is that we need to realize that we are not separate beings, but rather we are integral parts of the deep web of life. I don't really want to emphasize my Japanese element too much.
The titles of your pieces are interesting. In particular there are two series of works that have the titles Erewhon and Usagi. What do these words mean? Titles of some of the other pieces seem to imply a narrative or moment; I am thinking of the pieces It's your move, CakeWhitePalace and Poof! in particular. What motivated these choices?
Erehwon is "nowhere" backwards. It's also the title of a 19th century utopian novel by Samuel Butler. As I mentioned in my artist statement, I am interested in blurring the received meanings from mass culture. I use this title because it contains a contradicted logic in itself.
Usagi means "rabbit" in Japanese. The central figure in the Usagi series is a rabbit.
In It's your move, Poof! and Night Is Young, you'll find the pre-printed texts in the pieces.
Cake White Palace: I made this piece for the one night event/exhibition called Cake White Palace. I typically name the objects from something in the piece.
Some of the earlier works on your site are very abstract. There are also some sculptural pieces and some wearable items. How do they relate to the later pieces? Will you go back to exploring sculptural and wearable textile forms in the future?
In my earlier works, I was focusing on color using simple forms and structure. Currently, I am not interested in doing sculptural objects. I would like to challenge and continue to invent original perspectives in a two dimensional surface. I am still enjoying making accessories.
Where do you work? Do you have your own studio or are you mainly working at the university at the moment? Can you describe the environment and atmosphere you work in for us? Do you work alone or with others? Is it quiet or do you listen to music? I imagine the quilting machine must be fairly noisy?
Although each graduate student gets their own studio space at school, I have always preferred to work in my apartment, surrounded by boxes of found materials. My apartment is not so large but has 14 foot high ceilings. The building used to be an industrial factory. I usually listen to the radio. Classical music or classic rock (60s-70s) station. My machine isn't industrial, so it doesn't make a loud noise.
What kind of equipment do you work with? Much of your work is machine quilted - what is a quilting machine like? I am imagining some sort of enormous sewing machine! Do you have your own one? Is the process of using the machine particularly complex in a technical sense?
I use a Bernina sewing machine, a good and strong home sewing machine. My machine isn't computerized and to keep good control of the stitch-lines I have made it into a very manual technique by controlling the pedal and foot as I go.
Do you have to plan each of your works in intricate detail beforehand or do they evolve as you create them?
I don't really make a plan. I look at their colors, textures, forms, movement, contexts, etc, and then by finding just the right place for them, those discarded images come to life once again.
Which other artists (current or historical) influence your work or inspire you?
My favorite artist last year was Matthew Ritchie. I was looking at Thomas Hirschhorn's work in this spring.
What are you working on right now?
I am preparing for my first solo show in Chicago in this fall.
What are your plans for the future?
To establish myself as a studio artist.
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