Untitled Noren Partition (23)

2009

Untitled Noren Partition (23), 2009. Rowland Ricketts (American, b. 1971). Indigo dyed antique mosquito netting in plain weave, paste resist; overall: 170.2 x 184.2 cm (67 x 72 1/2 in.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Gift of The Textile Art Alliance 2012.50 Ricketts designs textiles using the same techniques Japanese indigo workers perfected over centuries. The doorway curtain, or noren, first appeared in Japan during the Heian Period (794–1185). These colorful curtains often adorn the outside of shops and buildings throughout Japan and signify to the customer what types of goods or services are inside. Ricketts subverts the use of noren as an object that separates spaces by using his weaving and dyeing process to connect himself and his viewers to thousands of years of traditional crafting. Ricketts grows, harvests, and processes all of his indigo dyes naturally.