Akiko Ike: Boro Chiku-Chiku

May 18–August 27, 2023

The museum was pleased to present Akiko Ike: Boro Chiku-Chiku, the artist’s first-ever solo museum exhibition in the United States. Ike is a renowned textile artist, teacher, and gallery owner from Niigata, Japan. She has exhibited her signature style internationally, including throughout Japan, in France, Australia, and in 2019 in a group exhibition at WMQFA.

At the age of sixty, she began creating entrancing stitched pieces, using humble remnants of indigo-dyed cloth and old work clothes. Giving these and other used textiles from her environment new life, she transforms found cloth by stitching with a strong thread in a manner she calls “chiku-chiku.” “Chiku-chiku” is the onomatopoeic word Ike has coined to describe the sound her broad needle makes as it runs into and out of the cloth. Now, nearly twenty years later, she has amassed a significant collection of vintage textiles laced with her own thread in her characteristic running stitch.

Ike often draws inspiration for her imagery from her surroundings, in particular her admiration for the sea and children. Niigata, situated alongside the picturesque coastline of the Sea of Japan, is known for its fishing. One of Ike’s characteristic tableaus are vibrantly stitched carp she hangs inside simple wooden frames. Playful and animated, the fish appear as though they are swimming alongside and above the viewer. Ike’s installation-based works will immerse the visitors in tableaus, inviting them to move around, under, and through the works.

This exhibition was generously supported by the Japan Foundation, New York, and the Wisconsin Arts Board.