Unraveling memories

In a process that runs counter to the way thread is woven into clothing, Kaoru Hirano (Nagasaki, 1975) creates installations from garments by undoing them and rearranging their threads then into new forms, like a vast spider web. This process explores the possible presence that inhabits the clothes and objects of those who once wore and used them.

In 2018, Hirano lost her paternal grandmother at the age of 96. Among the belongings she left behind was a white silk juban, likely hand-sewn by her. Juban is an essential piece of traditional Japanese attire, worn under the kimono to serve various functions: protecting the kimono from perspiration and direct skin contact, adding an extra layer of thermal comfort, and even structuring the kimono’s collar. In creating a work specifically for this exhibition, Hirano chose this intimate piece, rich with meanings that connect her to her ancestry.

The process of developing the work takes time and requires great care. Extremely delicate, the focus is not only on the careful unraveling but also on honoring the memories and recollections that reside in the material and gradually dissolve in the artist’s hands. In practice, it is like a search for the essence of the object before her. In this case, the silk garment sewn by her grandmother—which was once a fine, resilient thread—returns in a new form on the other side of the world, in the artist’s first exhibition in Latin America.