14 February 2015

Quilt I like, by Keiko Goke

How would you categorise this quilt - modern? contemporary? traditional? folk-art? art? What's its technique - improvisational? faux-naive?
Keiko Goke, My Double Wedding Ring, 2008; 88"x87" (via)
It's by Japanese artist Keiko Goke, and I find it utterly delightful ... but why? The colours are overwhelmingly bright and at first glance the effect is of green-yellow-red brightness ... not something that usually attracts me. Then you start to notice the subtle secondary hues in their random piecing ... or is it? Look at those tiny-piece sections, how artfully they are placed; not too many and not too few. That change of scale is brilliant - and also the use of larger-scale pieces, among which one, just one, of the greens is made of two shades; doesn't your eye keep coming back to that one?

The yellow centres tie it all together (their shape helps too); they look to be slightly different shades of yellow... and then you notice the red squares, another shape contributing to the lively mix and harmonious variety, and the colour contributing to that variety too. The dark yellow finds its way among the reds and oranges, and one of those squares is definitely a rectangle - though another rectangle is made by two reds of similar tonality.

As you notice (and verbalise) what's going on, you find yourself looking and looking...

Keiko Goke also designs fabric, a wide range including this one -

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