Tapestries
Term: September 1 - 30, 2021
Artist: Briar Rose Pelletier
The tapestry of one’s life is woven by your own hands.
The history of Koginzashi embroidery embodies this: during the Edo period, the peasant class of Aomori faced strict rules placed upon them by the Tokugawa administration in terms of clothing and resources. Only hemp cloth and indigo dyes could be used due to their low standing. For survival, they reinforced layers of hemp with embroidery stitching, creating designs symbolizing regional plants, animals, and their way of life. Koginzashi symbolizes a means of navigating a given situation and creating something beautiful from it.
Life experiences can inspire and take on creative forms one never expected.
Briar Rose Pelletier
Born and raised in Maine, the "Vacationland" of the United States, Briar pursued art from an early age. As a student, she became interested in community building through the arts and, in 2016, helped launch the Maine-Aomori Printmaking Society (MAPS): an international art exchange and exhibition project connecting artists in Maine and Aomori prefecture, Japan. She subsequently learned koginzashi while interning in Aomori: an embroidery style unique to the region. Briar began producing koginzashi embroidery seriously in 2020.
Briar is currently finishing her MA at Nagoya University specializing in art history while remotely preparing for MAPS’ fifth-year retrospective exhibition in Maine.
