Project

Ode to Hirokawa: A Threshold Between Worlds

Country

United States

‘Ode to Hirokawa: A Threshold Between Worlds’  lives at the edge of ancient craft and biotechnology—rooted in place, lineage, and a desire to collaborate with living systems. Amy Chien started this journey by reviving an inherited strain of E. coli, genetically modified to produce indigo, and used that pigment to dye wool yarn. While in Hirokawa – a town known for preserving traditional Japanese indigo dyeing and kurume kasuri weaving – she dyed waste cotton yarn in sukumo indigo vats, and extruded algae bioyarn dyed with yame matcha and black sesame—local pigments embedded in Yame heritage and culture. Each material was chosen with care, with slowness, with respect for rhythm—biological, seasonal, ancestral. The weaving itself draws from the region’s material craft practices using kasuri techniques passed down through generations, and the result is the merging of Japanese indigo-dyed yarn from Aizome Kasuri Kobo, biobased indigo, and algae bioyarn that is weaved into this unique collection.