Craft Portrait - Dorozome is an art book about traditional Japanese mud-dyeing technique Dorozome. It gathers eleven interviews of contemporary Dorozome artisans accompanied with series of photographs of the craft’s process and environment.
The interviews put the mentality of the artisans into light with themes such as the long way to becoming an artisan, the spirit of craftsmanship and the relationship between material creation with its natural and geographical environment.
About Craft Portrait
Craft Portrait is a project initiated by design duo Satomi Minoshima & Pauline Agustoni in 2019. Its aim is to tackle contemporary craftsmanship with a fresh eye. By coming in contact with the artisans who perform a craft everyday, the designers want to open a discussion about material production, respect of resources and alternative ways of producing.
The first edition of Craft Portrait was developed during the designers’ field trip to Japanese island Amami Oshima. Taught by the artisans of the workshop Kanai Kougei, they explored Dorozome, a traditional and meticulous mud-dyeing technique. They developed a textile installation for Belgian museum Z33 and collected testimonies from the artisans which were later on gathered in an art book. The book contains eleven interviews accompanied with photographs of the workshop and the island.
Book Design Satomi Minoshima Photography Pauline Agustoni Collaboration with Kanai Kougei Size 24 x 17 x 1 mm / Softcover / 104P Languages Japanese, English
Satomi Minoshima Satomi Minoshima is a Japanese designer based in Eindhoven, the Netherlands.
Her design process is focused on concept making based on design research inspired by materials, color, history, production processes which are already existing within the content. She comes from a graphic design background, therefore her approach combines visual communication between the 2-dimensional graphical world and the 3-dimensional material world to make the concepts materialized such as products, art pieces, Installations, Illustrations, books. https://www.satomiminoshima.com
Pauline Agustoni Pauline Agustoni is a Swiss designer based in Berlin, Germany. Working in the field of conceptual and textile design, Pauline’s practice combines both fields in a broad range of eclectic results. She allies collaborative and theoretical research with a hands-on approach in order to produce socially relevant and original creations. The starting point of all her projects are personal or historical stories and narratives, be it ones of minority groups, old traditional know-hows or industrial production processes. https://paulineagustoni.com/
