style of Torii Kiyomasu (active 1690s–1720s), uses simple lines

and a limited palette of orange, yellow, and mustard that dates

it to the first two decades of the eighteenth century. The print

has hand-colored areas done with a metallic dust, and also

shows the use of gauffrage, an embossing technique that adds

texture and patterning, in this case to the woman’s kimono.

Within the genre of actor prints is a work by an unknown

nineteenth-century artist that illustrates the exaggerated style

of acting known as aragoto. This warrior figure is frozen in a

stance suggesting imminent action, his hand ready at the sword

and his attire billowing with energy and dynamic surface treat-

ment. The complex patterning of the actor’s kimono stands in

contrast to the nearly hidden black-on-black gauffrage treat-

ment of the kimono on the Kiyomasu print. Yet despite the

visual contrast, both reveal a care taken in the rendering of the

all-important kimono.

Coded into a kimono is information about the gender of

the wearer (determined by the obi, or sash), her marital status

(based on sleeve length), an actor’s name (identified by virtue of

crests on his kimono), the occasion, the season. The kimono is

not unique in this coding. Every culture has codes inscribed, so

to speak, on clothing, one of our most visible cultural signifiers.

Think of the distinctive dress of the tehuana in 1920s Mexico

that was adopted by the postrevolutionary cultural elite such

as Frida Kahlo; or the zoot suit that brought to the surface a

simmering racial violence in Los Angeles in 1943; or the coun-

tercultural attire of hippies in the 1960s. Clothing plays a

central role as a means of constructing identity—for oneself and

for society. “I believe we have two skins that outline and define

who we are,” LaMonte has said. “One, of course, is our natural

skin, but we obscure and conceal it beneath clothing, which is a

second skin, our social skin.”

When LaMonte takes on a project, she immerses herself in

it fully—or dresses the part, as the case may be. When she

first arrived at the idea to make a life-scale glass dress in the

late 1990s, LaMonte set out, with the support of a Fulbright

fellowship, for the Czech Republic, where there were facto-

ries that could work at the scale she required and experienced

technicians who could accomplish what she envisioned. Each

58 E l P a l a c i o

Kimono: Karen LaMonte and Prints of the Floating WorldBy Laura addison

On Exhibit

Karen LaMonte, Ojigi – Bowing, 2010, cast glass, 52 × 25 × 18 in. Courtesy of David A. Kaplan and Glenn A. Ostergaard. Photo courtesy of the artist.

Clothing to me is an unspoken language of a society,” says

Karen LaMonte, who has gained international recognition

for her life-sized cast-glass sculptures of dresses emptied of

their inhabitants. Having focused for a decade on dress styles

and drapery characteristic of Western society—from the dress

of classical statuary to the sumptuous flow of cloth in baroque

painting and sculpture—LaMonte turned her attention four

years ago to Japan and the clothing that most embodies that

culture: the kimono.

LaMonte’s sculpture Ojigi—Bowing (2010) is featured in the

exhibition Kimono: Karen LaMonte and Prints of the Floating World,

on view at the New Mexico Museum of Art June 24 through

November 6, 2011. Also in the exhibition are Japanese wood-

block prints from the museum collection, and from a private

collection. Nearly one dozen prints are displayed, the earliest

a Kaigetsedo-school print dating from circa 1710—one of only

forty-one extant in the world today. Other well-known practi-

tioners of ukiyo-e (“floating world”) are also included, among

them Harunobu and Utamaro. The prints were selected for

their emphasis on the kimono, to explore the differing interpre-

tations of this cultural object by different artists from different

eras in different mediums.

Ukiyo-e translates to “floating world,” a reference to painting

and prints that depict the ephemeral aspects of life celebrated in

Japan’s pleasure districts—embodied most often in the figures

of courtesans and actors of Kabuki theater. Before the seven-

teenth century, ukiyo-e had a negative connotation, translated as

“suffering world,” a warning against such short-sighted luxuries

and indulgences. But with the political stability and rise of cities

and wealth during the Pax Tokugawa (1600–1868), there was a

change in attitude toward materialism. Consequently “floating

world” prints and paintings of this era were primarily figura-

tive in nature and referred to those leisure activities. Eventu-

ally ukiyo-e came to encompass woodblock prints in general,

including genres such the landscapes by Hiroshige and Hokusai

that have become so familiar to Western audiences.

The woodblock prints in Kimono concentrate on the stricter

meaning of ukiyo-e, with examples of “beauties,” courtesans,

and actors. An image of a woman with two attendants, in the

comfortable affair, she reports—and collaborated on a project

with a master kimono maker. LaMonte returned to her studio

in Prague with more than 250 kimonos and an understanding

of the unspoken language of the kimono.

Quite distinct from the sensuous curves and baroque drapery

of her Western dress sculptures, the kimono sculptures reflect

a different cultural norm, one in which the human form is

depleted of all curves to become an idealized cylindrical form.

“How the kimono is worn parallels the relationship between

Japanese individuals and their society,” LaMonte explained

in a 2010 lecture at the Renwick Gallery in Washington, DC.

“Putting on a kimono is literally about erasing the individual’s

identity and joining the group.” This notion is at the heart of

LaMonte’s kimono project: “the erasure of the individual” in

Japanese society.

Whereas for past castings LaMonte worked with live models,

for the kimono series she built a mannequin based on biometric

data of the Japanese population compiled by NASA. She selected

the measurements for the fiftieth percentile of forty-year-old

Japanese women in the year 2000 in 1 g (gravitational force).

“My mannequin is the exact average Japanese female—the

exact everywoman or no-woman,” she stated in a recent email

correspondence. The shorter sleeve length tells us the kimono

belongs to a married woman, and her posture is a bow from

the waist called ojigi. It is a quintessential gesture of respect and

humble greeting in Japan.

Interestingly, the colorless translucency of LaMonte’s sculp-

tures denies the viewer the visual experience of the patterning

and colors one expects to see in an actual kimono. This creates

a noteworthy paradox in the Kimono exhibition, one that creates

a compelling tension among the works that inhabit the gallery:

The ukiyo-e print has been embraced by Western society, most

notably by nineteenth-century European artists such Monet,

Degas, and Van Gogh, for its flatness, asymmetry, surface

patterning, and antinaturalistic perspective. LaMonte’s inter-

pretation of the kimono, in contrast, is concerned instead with

volume, realism, and the elimination of surface design. “For me

how the kimono is worn, the cut, the obi, and the gesture of the

absent figure are more significant than the patterning. The deco-

ration might tell you about the season, but the way she wears it,

how far the back collar dips exposing the back, the length of the

sleeves showing martial status, and the tie of the obi all speak to

her role in society, her class, and about who she is.”

On Exhibitsculpture is a labor of love and an exercise in patience and forti-

tude, requiring nine months to create, with a mere 50 percent

success rate. When LaMonte first conceived of working with the

kimono, she spent four years researching the project, including

a seven-month residency in Kyoto funded by the Japan–US

Friendship Commission. She sought to understand all aspects

of the kimono—its production, form, function, and social

significance. She learned how to dress in a kimono—a less than

Laura Addison is the curator of contemporary art at the new Mexico Museum of Art.

Attributed to Torii Kiyomasu I, Untitled (Courtesan with Two Attendants), 1690s–1720s,

color woodblock. Collection of the new Mexico Museum of Art. Gift of Mrs. Sallie

Wagner, 1965 (1792.23G).

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trAvel our enchAnting new

mexico Art trAils!

NORTHERN NEW MEXICOPOTTERS TRAIL

Contemporary Clay Artists of Northern New Mexico & Santa Fe

www.newmexicopotterstrail.org

NEW MEXICO FIBER ARTS TRAILS

A Guide to Rural Fiber Arts Destinations

www.nmfiberarts.org

ARTISTIC VISTAS AND TREASURES

Studios & Galleries from Taos Canyoneast to Angel Fire and Cimarronwww.artisticvistas.org

ANCIENT WAY ARTS TRAILArtisans along Route 53:Gallup to Zuni to Grants

www.ancientwayartstrail.com

TRAILS & RAILSArts & Heritage in Valencia County

www.artsandheritagenm.com

support creAtivity At its source!

Your guide to 250 fiber artists and their creations

at more than 60 rural destinations along the Trails.

TRAVEL AND EXPLOREgalleries

artist studiostraining programs

trading postsmuseums

farmsmills

cooperativessuppliers

fiber arts centerscottage enterprises

�

Visit www.nmfiberarts.org to down-load the New Mexico Fiber Arts Trails

64-page guide or brochure.Or call: 1-505-827-6490

In New Mexico: 1-800-879-4278to request a copy by mail.

NEW MEXICO

fiberARTS TRAILS

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