Maki Teshima’s “Botanical Stories” is a sculpture, technically, but it feels more like a three-dimensional painting. Visitors are invited to walk right inside of it.
Installed at the small project space known as Understudy in downtown Denver, the work is, on its surface, quite simple. It consists of a few dozen panels of organza fabric, dyed in different colors and suspended like a wispy cloud from the ceiling.
But the way that Maki structures the piece — as swoops and swishes of various hues layered over each other — is reminiscent of the way a painter applies different shades onto a canvas. Every piece of fabric takes on the energy of an expressive, unrestrained brushstroke.
The artist uses recycled materials in her work, including the T-shirts in this piece that hangs over Understudy’s front door. (Daniel Tseng, Special to The Denver Post)
It’s a plus that you can slip between the delicate layers and experience how the colors come together. That you can move around within it, adjusting your view from different angles and altering the mix and match of tones and undertones that you see.
Color is really the point of Teshima’s work. She describes herself as a “botanical dye textile artist,” and for her it is all about harvesting pigments from the things around her.
Her practice is highly sensitive to the environment. Most of her raw materials are sourced from local restaurants and flower shops, or found in her own kitchen or garden.
She picks up shades of yellow and red by scraping up the excess onion skins in the produce bins at her local Trader Joe’s market. She culls a pale pink from avocado pits — food waste that is saved for her by friends who operate a local restaurant.
Each color is extracted by hand using a different method. She develops a grayish black, for example, by boiling betel nuts that she acquires from an Indian grocery store in Aurora. Teshima lives in Denver, though she learned many of her techniques during her formal art studies in New York or through visits to private studios back in her native Japan.
The colors she creates range from deep blues and golds to delicate yellows and browns, and the exhibit — organized by Annie Geimer — is generous in explaining how her process unfolds. Teshima provides a booklet listing her various color sources and where she picked up each of the materials.
There are also a series of clear glass vases installed on the ledges of the gallery’s windows that show the actual raw materials — like marigolds or indigo — matched with a piece of fabric that has been dyed with its extracts. They are meant to be show-and-tell specimens but they each take on the essence of a work of art themselves.
Dyeing textiles as an art form is certainly not new. The practice goes back to Neolithic times, and includes an endless array of techniques from batik to tie-dye. (There is an excellent textile show at the Denver Art Museum right now with numerous examples going back centuries.)
But what Teshima does at Understudy is different than the way most people think of this practice. It is less about making a finished textile object — such as a decorative blanket or a fashionable scarf — and more focused on the production of color. Some artists sculpt or etch or print, but Teshima extracts; that is her art form.
Maki Teshima applies her dyes to fashion items like T-shirts and bandanas. They are for sale at Understudy. (Daniel Tseng, Special to The Denver Post)
Applying these dyes to organza is a perfect way to show them off. The material is light, billowy and takes color easily, and it folds, crinkles and bends to demonstrate the visual possibilities that exist within each shade.
The pieces of fabric — all different shapes and sizes — are lit from above at Understudy, which illuminates the hues to their brightest advantage. There is also a fan that blows very gently through the room, keeping the material in constant motion.
That said, the installation is best activated by its viewers. You need to move around it to get the maximum effect, and that involves navigating through something of an obstacle course of silky organza, a gauzy fabric most frequently associated with bridal gowns.
In doing so, you inevitably come into physical contact with the soft fabric panels — you brush up against them or back into them or flip them out of your way. That adds a tactile element to the experience of visiting “Botanical Stories” that makes it less formal and much more personal. You do need to be gentle as you make your way around it, but it is definitely a kid-friendly piece of art
As a sideshow to the main installation, Understudy is also exhibiting a recent piece the artist made called “Musubi // Connections.” That work, originally displayed outdoors, consists of hundreds of recycled T-shirts that Teshima dyed in different colors and then tied into knots. (Musubi is the Japanese word for knot.)
The exhibit includes some examples of the raw materials that Maki Teshima uses for her dyes. They are perched on the window frames at Understudy, located in a storefront on the first level of the Colorado Convention Center. (Daniel Tseng, Special to The Denver Post)
The shirts are connected to ropes that stretch about 20 feet long and they are suspended over the entrance at Understudy. The artists want viewers to think of the various ways we make connections through community in our daily lives.
That work is also interactive. Visitors can make wishes and write them down on small, flat wooden sticks, which are then incorporated permanently into the larger work itself. It is another aspect of this offering that makes it an interesting family outing on a snowy day.
Just a little tip: Understudy is a small space and not so easy to find. Look for it next to the RTD light rail stop located near 14th and Stout streets. Hours are limited so check the website.
IF YOU GO
Maki Teshima’s “Botanical Stories” continues through Nov. 24 at Understudy, 890 14th St. It’s free. Info: denvertheatredistrict.com.