Drawing on a sculptural sensibility, a solo exhibition by Aya Cagiu, who transforms embroidery into three-dimensional and temporal expressions, will be held. The exhibition features 10 exquisite new works that continue to convey the beauty of the world by capturing the light with silk thread.

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MEGUMI OGITA GALLERY is pleased to present Aya Cagiu’s solo exhibition, “To Capture the Light”. Cagiu was born in Hyogo, Japan in 1978, and graduated from the Department of Sculpture at Tama Art University in 2001. She has been presenting embroidery works since her first solo exhibition, “Over the sea, in the sky”, in 2011, developing this medium into three-dimensional and temporal expressions based on her sculptural sensibility. Furthermore, she carries forward Japan’s dyeing and weaving culture and the handcrafts of “prayer” into the present day, exploring the boundary between “seeing” and “touching” through the traces of time marked by thread. Her major exhibitions include “Takamatsu Contemporary Art annual vol.09: Imagine the presence of Time” (2020) at the Takamatsu Art Museum, Kagawa; “Stories Drawn in Thread - Embroidery, Illustration, and Fashion” (2021–23, Yokosuka Museum of Art, Kanagawa and other venues), a solo exhibition “Night Flight” (2023, MEGUMI OGITA GALLERY, Tokyo), and “In the Genes, Taking Marvelous Meiji Craftsmanship into the Future” (2023–24, Mitsui Memorial Museum, Tokyo and other venues nationwide).

 

Cagiu encountered shubutsu (Buddhist embroidery) while visiting Nara, Japan to research ancient art in her third year at university. Around the same time, she was captivated by traditional and ethnic embroidery while visiting a small museum in Turkey. She traced the history of Japanese embroidery, with its origins to the “Tenjukoku Shucho Mandala” from the Asuka period (538–710) in her paper “From the Embroidered Buddha Image to Decoration: Embroidery Expression” (Bulletin of Showagakuin Junior College vol.49) in 2012. Furthermore, based on the properties of natural materials and optical theory, her work features contemporary experiments that transcend the boundaries of embroidery. These include arranging silk threads of different colors side by side so that the viewer’s eyes blend them together to enhance saturation and depth, and unraveling sets of 12 silk threads to mix their colors, thereby shifting the impressions depending on the viewing angle. Layering the interplay of her thoughts through embroidery, Cagiu imbues everyday motifs—such as the towns and ruins she visits, or stones, shells and fallen leaves found by chance—with irreplaceable meaning and value. She begins her work by studying the actual objects, drawing on poetry and novels, and incorporating the images that emerge from her imagination into her pieces. As she speaks of her works as “works in progress” and describes “each stitch as a succession of hesitation and decision”, the figure of the artist appears—carrying the light of intellect and sensibility, taking small steps towards the world she believes in.

 

This exhibition presents ten exquisite new works, including “Figure of Light”—a human form seen within a seashell as a body blessed by light; “Feather”, which meticulously captures the light, graceful movement of a feather; and “Spring”, inspired by microfossils in sand. We hope you look forward to Aya Cagiu’s solo exhibition, the first to be held here in two and a half years.

 

Light

 

The art school I attended had a drawing room.

High ceilings, plaster casts placed here and there, and windows covering the entire wall.

The lights were never switched on in that room,

and the plaster casts possessed countless tones in the natural light.

 

I would take the early morning train to school on short winter days.

Even now, I recall the infinitely gentle shimmer of the sea as seen from that early morning train.

 

When my daughter was born, I wanted her to live doing what she loved.

I began to create since that was not the case for me.

I decided to continue for as long as possible, even if slowly, and chose “Cagiu” (snail) as my artist name.

There was nothing but the sound of a needle piercing the fabric in the quiet light of morning.

 

Living with my child and playing together,

I began to see the world through eyes I had never known before.

 

The song of early birds before dawn.

The ever-changing colors of the morning glow, which I gaze at, forgetting to breathe.

The bands of light I see in a fallen bird’s feather.

The long, long stories held within a small stone.

The inhabitants of the land of fallen leaves.

The mysterious spirals of seashells.

The three-dimensional forms of snowflakes.

 

Countless colors.

Shapes that cannot be imitated.

They invite me to places I have never been.

 

Silk threads shimmer with a lustrous glow.

I use those threads to record the light I have captured.

Each and every one of them forms shapes I have never seen before.

 

—Aya Cagiu

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