Fri, Oct 8, 1pm – Kay Sekimachi:Geometries – J-Sei group tour
Join us for a group visit to see “Kay Sekimachi: Geometries” exhibit at BAMPFA, the UC Berkeley Pacific Film Archive Museum. We will meet at BAMPFA, 2155 Center Street (at Oxford St), easily accessible by BART. The group ticket price is $8 Please RSVP to jill@j-sei.org with “Kay Sekimachi tour” in the subject line.
“Kay Sekimachi: Geometries” includes more than fifty objects that highlight the artist’s material and formal innovations across her career. First recognized for her woven monofilament sculptures, made between 1964 and 1974, Sekimachi has since used linear, pliable elements—monofilament, thread, and paper, among other materials—to create experimental objects that fold together art and craft, found and made, and Japanese and American artistic traditions.
Born in San Francisco and growing up in Berkeley, Kay Sekimachi studied at the California College of Arts and Crafts in Oakland from 1946 to 1949. In 1949 she took up weaving on the loom and became so adept at the labor-intensive process that she is often referred to as a “weaver’s weaver.” Today, almost fifty years after she began to work in fiber, Sekimachi is recognized as a pioneer in resurrecting it as a medium of artistic expression.
Sekimachi uses the loom to construct three-dimensional sculptural forms. In the early 1970s she used nylon monofilament to create hanging quadruple tubular woven forms to explore ideas of space, transparency, and movement. Inspired by her ancestral homeland of Japan, Sekimachi repeatedly returns to that ancient culture for ideas.
“Sekimachi eschews color in order to reinforce the sculptural qualities of her forms and emphasize the natural properties of her chosen materials. Enamored with antique Japanese paper, she has created a series of standing geometric postlike forms that suggest ancient totemic figures.” –Smithsonian American Art Museum