
TOKYO -- Reiko Sudo, an internationally acclaimed textile designer, entrepreneur, college professor and champion of both preservation and innovation in the Japanese textile industry, enthusiastically welcomes admirers while standing beneath a swarm of more than 300 koinobori (carp streamers) -- colorful fabric windsocks resembling Japanese koi (carp). The streamers are suspended as if swimming from the ceiling of the main gallery of Tokyo's National Art Center.
Each streamer is made of textiles designed over the years by Sudo and her team at Nuno Corp., a company she owns and runs as artistic director. The installation, a collaboration between Sudo, French exhibition designer Adrien Gardere and visual artist Seiichi Saito, represents a cross-section of the 2,500 textile designs produced by Nuno since 1984.