Toshiko Horiuchi

Toshiko Horiuchi Macadam is one of Japan's leading fibre artists, and one of a very small number that sometimes use knitting or crochet in their work. Living in Canada, she now specialises in creating large, interactive textile environments that function both as imaginative and vibrant explorations of colour and form, at the same time as providing thrilling play environments.

"Luminous Column". Materials: Nylon Mylar. Techniques: Hand Knitting, Crochet. Location: 'Fabric in Space' - exhibition, Tokyo Metropolitan Art Museum. 1987, by Toshiko Horiuchi Macadam.

The beginning of her career coincided with the development of 'fibre art' as an active sub-section within the fine art world. Her work was very much a part of the new wave of fibre art that happened in the 1970's, and she was one of several Japanese artists to make a deep impression.

'Fibre Columns/Romanesque Church' and 'Atmosphere of the Floating Cube' were two pieces that were featured within several major accounts of that movement, in books such as 'The Art Fabric Mainstream' by Mildred Constantine & Jack Lenor Larsen. There they describe how 'she knit hundreds of gold and silver lengths, stretched them into concave panels, and composed them as a cube. Then, with powerful knee-height floodlights, she transformed the whole into a haloed radiance.'

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"'Atmosphere of the Floating Cube". Materials: Nylon. Techniques: Hand Knitting, Crochet. Location: National Museum of Modern Art, Kyoto, by Toshiko Horiuchi Macadam.

The Hakone Pavillion with Tezuka Architects, by Toshiko Horiuchi Macadam.

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Toshiko Horiuchi Macadam

Toshiko Horiuchi MacAdam is a Japanese-Canadian textile artist born in Tokyo, Japan, in 1940. She is internationally known for creating large, colourful crocheted sculptures and nets that serve as playgrounds for children.

She studied Fine Arts at the Tama Fine Art Institute in Tokyo and later earned a master’s degree from the Cranbrook Academy of Art in the United States in 1966. During the 1970s, she began experimenting with large-scale textile sculptures.

An important moment in her career occurred when she saw children playing on one of her artworks. This inspired her to design sculptures that people could not only look at, but also touch, climb, and explore.

Her installations are mainly made from hand-knotted and crocheted nylon ropes. Her work combines art, design, architecture, and play while encouraging imagination and social interaction.

Toshiko Horiuchi MacAdam is considered an important figure in contemporary textile art because she transformed traditional weaving and crochet techniques into monumental and interactive artistic spaces.

Published on: May 11, 2011

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metalocus, JOSÉ JUAN BARBA

"Toshiko Horiuchi" METALOCUS. Accessed

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