Thursday, March 1, 2012

JUN-ICHI ARAI, Awarded an Honorary Doctorate by the Royal College of Art, London



gallery gen is pleased to announce that textile designer Jun-Ichi Arai was awarded an Honorary Doctorate by the Royal College of Art in London, U.K. 

The ceremony was held in the Royal Albert Hall in July 1st, 2011. The honorary doctorate by the Royal College of Art is conferred upon very few individuals achieved the rarest of feats in fields of arts and design. Arai became one of the fifth of Japanese who the award was given.
 

Professor Jeremy Myerson, the director of Helen Hamlyn Center who was the orator of the ceremony described Arai as “a futurist of fabric” and “the dream weaver.” Jack Lenor Larsen, who is also the RCA Hon Doc, called “rare bird – a post-industrial craftsman.”

For more than fifty years, Arai has devoted his life to introducing technologic innovations to the textile making. He was the first attempted embracing computer technology integrated into traditional jacquard looming. As he called himself a textile engineer, he kept opening numerous new possibilities for the future of the textile industry.

By his mastery of slit yarn, any irrelevant materials to traditional textile design, such as plastic, metal, aluminum and even stainless steel, were transformed into masterpieces of art. A reflective non-flammable fabric woven with polyphenylene sulfide (PPS) is just one of his substantial achievements. His unparalleled inventions of fabrics were inspiring the fashion of Issey Miyake and Comme des Garcons by Rei Kawakubo. Not only technological development, but he also contributed to refine the art of textile.
 
Beyond the normative role of textile designer, his limitless creativity has deeply influenced fashion, interior design and architecture throughout the late 20th century.


For any inquiry on the gallery's collection of works by Jun-ichi Arai, please contact us at 718-392-7717 or inquiry@gallerygen.com.