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JANET KAWADA BFA FIBERS, 1992
Why string? Why wrapping? What is it that draws me to this? Having time on your hands with nothing to do. How often do we hear that phrase? What does it mean? Can we reflect without feeling that we are empty? Winding these balls has been over the years a marking of time, a catharsis, calendar, performance, sharing, meditative, a way to document a time span. They were also an entry into a discussion. It could be a discussion on art or on politics. Their physicality opened up topics that could be hard to broach with others. In 1997, when I wasn’t able to be in my studio, I began to work out in public as I waited and marked time. This first foray of using the string to create a ball was stream of conscious; I started and wasn’t sure when I would finish. At that point I was not thinking about the longevity of this project. I only knew that this is what I needed to do. That first ball grew to weight 94 pounds and took me about a year to create. By the end of that time, I realized what I was doing. I was tying up loose ends and marking time. And it became a metaphor for my feeling about life. Life is an ebb and flow; no matter what you finish or tie up, there is something always to take its place. These balls were not busyness for my hands. They were physical representations of specific times. And each ball has a history that the viewer will never know because you cannot see what is inside. Most of the balls are specific to me and my time frame. In two instances there is a special and specific relationship to others. I have worked on this body of work as I work in my other media. It became a meditative action for me and I found that I could, in fact, wrap and talk, wrap and listen and wrap and wander both in my mind and my body.