​Guimarães, with its old town, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, has a traditional embroidery that has been passed down from grandmother to mother to daughter as the work or hobby for women in the home. The work 'Memories of Hands' was created based on such "homely embroidery", and is exhibited with the image of embroidery left casually in a room.

On the other hand, embroidery works often receive praise for the effort that went into them, but these are usually limited to comments such as "that must have taken an enormous amount of time to make", or "it's very delicate and the technique is amazing", and it seems that people rarely take an interest in the meaning of the motifs or patterns. By simplifying the display this time, the intention was for viewers to take the time to look closely at each motifs, patterns, and embroidery itself, just as they would take the time to do the embroidery, rather than just viewing the works as an exhibition.

In creating this work, I was deeply impressed by the embroidery of an elderly woman who attended my workshop at a nursing home in a hospital. Her life has been filled with many events, and they are now only distant memories, but her hands have not forgotten "beauty". The memory of her hands was the inspiration for this work.​​​​​​

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「手の記憶」- Contextile 2024  AiR -

ユネスコ世界遺産の旧市街があるギマランイスには伝統的な刺繍があり、それは家庭における女性の仕事、或いは趣味として、祖母から母、娘と何世代に渡って受け継がれてきた。作品「手の記憶」はそうした"家庭的な刺繍"をテーマに制作したものであり、無造作に部屋に置かれている刺繍をイメージして展示した。

一方、刺繍作品はしばしばその"手間ひま"に賛辞を受けることが多く、それはたいてい「これを作るのに膨大な時間がかかったでしょう」などの感想に終始し、モチーフの意味やパターンに関心を持たれることは少ないように思う。今回は展示を簡素にすることで刺繍の労力ではなく、1つ1つのモチーフやパターン、刺繍そのものをじっくり見てもらいたいという思いがあった。

今回この作品を制作するにあたり、病院施設で開催した私のワークショップに参加してくれた年配女性の刺繍に強く感銘を受けた。彼女の人生には様々な出来事がありそれらは今や遠い思い出でしかないが、それでも彼女の手は今も"美しさ"を忘れてはいなかった。彼女の手の記憶が今回の制作の源となった。​​