ジャリン・リー / Jialing Lee

Venue: (06)KURA HOUSE

《Unseen spring》2025

About Works: [Curatorial Comment]

Taiwan-born artist Jialing Lee creates soft sculptures made from quilted cotton canvas, using the material’s softness and warm colors as a vessel for holding and articulating the narratives of a given place. In this two-story venue—once a pawnshop storehouse—her works take the form of objects such as vases, books, and specimen cases, evoking tools for storing or safeguarding what is valuable. It is as if the thoughts and memories that once “arrived” at this pawnshop are waiting, within the stillness of this space, to surface again through Lee’s works.
At the center of the first floor stands Unseen Spring, a textile sculpture modeled after a fountain. Conceived as a site where memories and sentiments well up, the work resonates deeply with this year’s exhibition theme, “What Flows Beneath the Weave.” The gentle contours of the fabric suggest the presence of “unseen water,” positioning the work as a vessel that receives the layers of time embedded within the room. On the second floor, textile boxes and shelves hold cast forms of coral and seashells that Lee collected—objects that appear preserved with the care of specimens or jewelry.
In Fujiyoshida, limited natural water sources led residents to construct artificial waterways, which in turn supported the development of the local textile industry. Drawing on this history of water shaped by human hands, Lee adopts the symbolic figure of the fountain to reflect on the power and memory that water has carried into the city and into everyday life.

[Artist Statement]

Water is the origin of life, as well as the foundation of dyeing and weaving. Fujiyoshida once lacked natural water sources, yet through artificial channels and irrigation, it gradually grew into a city of textiles. Here, water is not only a natural presence but also a force reshaped by human hands.
Artist Jialing Lee constructs a fountain sculpture with quilted fabric as a metaphor for a “vessel of water.” The fountain symbolizes both humanity’s reverence for and mastery over water, serving as an emblem of life’s origin and of civilization itself. Behind this “unseen water,” the work invites viewers to imagine the shape of water, how it has given strength to the city, and how in its invisible form it continues to shape our world.

Artist Profile: ジャリン・リー / Jialing Lee
Born in Taiwan in 1990, Jialing Lee is a textile artist trained in industrial design before earning her MA in Textiles from the Royal College of Art in London (2019). Her works form poetic “soft landscapes” that evoke themes of human connection, migration, transformation, and nostalgia. Through layering, quilting, and hand-stitching, she constructs textile sculptures that weave together material memory and emotional resonance.
In 2020, Lee founded Pieces of Jade, a textile studio dedicated to experimental, fabric-based practices that bridge art and contemporary craft. Her works have been exhibited internationally in London, Paris, Milan, New York, Tokyo, and Seoul, and have been featured in Embroidery (UK) and Elle Decor Italy, where she was recognized as a new talent redefining the landscape of textile art.

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