Fukuko AndoIn front of the mirror, I work with the wooden mannequin on which I directly sculpt the dress form by the fabric. The dress has 360 degrees awareness.
Ando’s work is based on a simple proposition : ” Each person has a body.
The body expresses a person’s story and history, the dress is a language the expresses that body , the human body and the dress are both founded on the same principle: constant, unbroken perception “
Fukuko Ando
RENAISSANCE New born step 1
Taffeta Polyester / Embroidery thread
A lotus flower is life-centred, shining beyond everything. The lotus flower is not affected by muddy water. It is a symbol of joy that shines through the mud. A person’s true joy and happiness must arise after they overcome hardships and break through muddy waters, like a lotus flower blooming.
A lotus flower is life-centred, shining beyond everything. The lotus flower is not affected by muddy water. It is a symbol of joy that shines through the mud. A person’s true joy and happiness must arise after they overcome hardships and break through muddy waters, like a lotus flower blooming.
Taffeta Polyester / Embroidery thread
Breathing is the beginning of everything. Inhale, exhale, hope and love expand. Receive all blessings, the blue blessing is water and the blessing of red is fire. There is water in the fire and there is fire in the water. It’s the secret of life.
A lotus flower is life-centred, shining beyond everything. The lotus flower is not affected by muddy water. It is a symbol of joy that shines through the mud. A person’s true joy and happiness must arise after they overcome hardships and break through muddy waters, like a lotus flower blooming.
Taffeta Polyester / Embroidery thread
Breathing is the beginning of everything. Inhale, exhale, hope and love expand. Receive all blessings, the blue blessing is water and the blessing of red is fire. There is water in the fire and there is fire in the water. It’s the secret of life.
“Like the truth of a pure lotus flower blooming from muddy water“
Creating these 48 Mandala Lotus Dresses, here at this elder stage of my life, is hope, awareness and prayer. Creation is a source of pure inspiration taking form as the human life force.Inspiration arises from within, when you feel the truth burning within you. I follow that inspiration.The consciousness of the Mandala Lotus was born out of an effort to preserve pure light as inspiration in this chaotic world, a place like muddy water.To create a pure lotus flower out of muddy water, we need to keep our own hearts pure, offering effort and perseverance in endless hours and moments, to that presence of purity and tranquillity.
Yes, what we need to know above all is the law of effort. If we forget this necessity, we must pay the price of physical and mental degeneration: our consciousness loses its power to follow inspiration. And creation may be selflessness. With constant patience, eliminating one’s own thoughts, eliminating one’s ego, connecting with inspiration without being distracted by the muddy spirit of the world.
Like Mount Fuji which stands tall and unaffected by the chaos of this world. Even if the earth is polluted, the summit of Mt. Fuji towers above, ever pure. Our life force is naturally maintained by the cosmic order. The fundamental reality of life, the sublime joy of human existence, no matter how miserable, bitter, or dirty the world may be. If beautiful, shining lotus flowers exist in this world, may we not also live like them? That awareness should change this world.
A lotus flower is life-centred, shining beyond everything. The lotus flower is not affected by muddy water. It is a symbol of joy that shines through the mud. A person’s true joy and happiness must arise after they overcome hardships and break through muddy waters, like a lotus flower blooming.For me, the effort to break through the muddy waters of this world is the perseverance to use fabric and thread to carve an eternity out of this world’s moments. It is a time of patience that transforms each stitch into eternity.
I empty myself. Only the presence of cloth, thread, and one needle weave eternal time. I am not there. In this world of greed, dirt, and deadly laziness, every movement of my hand dreams of a future lotus flower. One day when the 48 lotus dresses bloom, it will surely become a great mandala. The time will come when its absoluteness will pierce the darkness of this world, and with patience and effort, connecting each moment with inspiration, there will dawn an era in which newborn truths shall bloom. Like Mt. Fuji, which stands tall, unaffected by the poisons of this world.I believe in this hope, and this is why I weave the intention of the mandala into eternity, moment by moment, with every movement of my hand.
Union and Dissolution:
The time of the androgynies.
Light:
ONE essential vibration, having come from the Heavens and from the Earth, the miracle of Oneness resonating above and below.
ALPHA and OMEGA
Handmade / Fabric :
Steen gold / silver silk, organdy white silk, hand made embroidery with silver gold yellow gold gold iridescent bronze orange bronze black silver metallic black white thread.
The new DNA has given a newborn infant.
Man and Woman are united. This is the miracle of life.
This was and will be our original human being in universal memory.
I have arrived at 12.
We are One.
Sound is a particular type of vibration for the universe
We now know that the entire universe vibrates:
to manifest itself through waves that can be captured by something or someone.
matter, atoms, light, color . We can thus say that we are nothing but one sound , a vibration.”
“HEXAGON door invites you to the riddle of life.
You are even ENIGMA life.”
( Fukuko Ando )
“Life has always manifested in many ways the natural architecture that enable our entire reality .
Geometry is one of the ways that allows us to contemplate or to understand what is hidden to our eyes, as the riddle of life.
The hexagon could express all the basic energy structures of the universe known and unknown through his Sacred Geometry, as well as “The Platonic solids” contains this infinite and inexhaustible information available to us all .”
After the pouring of water from above, long silence.
And the Creative WORD is the birth of eternal light – the New DNA
Handmade / Fabric :
Sateen gold silk, black viscose, hand made embroidery with silver gold yellow gold multicolored thread.
As my body filled with Infinite love,
the seed of birth, it is DNA, that became manifest.
I felt that a new DNA had awoken at the centre of the Universe.
Sound is a particular type of vibration for the universe
We now know that the entire universe vibrates:
to manifest itself through waves that can be captured by something or someone.
matter, atoms, light, color . We can thus say that we are nothing but one sound , a vibration.”
“HEXAGON door invites you to the riddle of life.
You are even ENIGMA life.”
( Fukuko Ando )
“Life has always manifested in many ways the natural architecture that enable our entire reality .
Geometry is one of the ways that allows us to contemplate or to understand what is hidden to our eyes, as the riddle of life.
The hexagon could express all the basic energy structures of the universe known and unknown through his Sacred Geometry, as well as “The Platonic solids” contains this infinite and inexhaustible information available to us all .”
After the pouring of water from above, long silence.
And the Creative WORD is the birth of eternal light – the New DNA
Handmade / Fabric :
Sateen gold silk, black viscose, hand made embroidery with silver gold yellow gold multicolor thread.
As my body filled with Infinite love,
the seed of birth, it is DNA, that became manifest.
I felt that a new DNA had awoken at the centre of the Universe.
Sound is a particular type of vibration for the universe
We now know that the entire universe vibrates:
to manifest itself through waves that can be captured by something or someone.
matter, atoms, light, color . We can thus say that we are nothing but one sound , a vibration.”
“HEXAGON door invites you to the riddle of life.
You are even ENIGMA life.”
( Fukuko Ando )
“Life has always manifested in many ways the natural architecture that enable our entire reality .
Geometry is one of the ways that allows us to contemplate or to understand what is hidden to our eyes, as the riddle of life.
The hexagon could express all the basic energy structures of the universe known and unknown through his Sacred Geometry, as well as “The Platonic solids” contains this infinite and inexhaustible information available to us all .”
Water from the heavens,
Water from above, bringing boundless love, endlessly flowing.
Handmade / Fabric :
Organdy blue sky blue silk, hand made embroidery with silver thread.
The flame of the “Fire of Spirit” ascended to heaven.
The flame turned to water.
The water of love circulated in my body.
I had a sense of Infinite love.
Memories of the past were transformed into Infinite love.
Sound is a particular type of vibration for the universe
We now know that the entire universe vibrates:
to manifest itself through waves that can be captured by something or someone.
matter, atoms, light, color . We can thus say that we are nothing but one sound , a vibration.”
“HEXAGON door invites you to the riddle of life.
You are even ENIGMA life.”
( Fukuko Ando )
“Life has always manifested in many ways the natural architecture that enable our entire reality .
Geometry is one of the ways that allows us to contemplate or to understand what is hidden to our eyes, as the riddle of life.
The hexagon could express all the basic energy structures of the universe known and unknown through his Sacred Geometry, as well as “The Platonic solids” contains this infinite and inexhaustible information available to us all .”
The flame of spirit burns,
but does not consume itself.
Handmade / Fabric :
Sateen red on powdered gold silk, muslin red on powdered gold, hand made embroidery with yellow gold thread.
I completed my quest, finished “The Grail” dresses: a great transformation.
I completed my quest, finished “The Grail” dresses: a great transformation.
Sound is a particular type of vibration for the universe
We now know that the entire universe vibrates:
to manifest itself through waves that can be captured by something or someone.
matter, atoms, light, color . We can thus say that we are nothing but one sound , a vibration.”
“HEXAGON door invites you to the riddle of life.
You are even ENIGMA life.”
( Fukuko Ando )
“Life has always manifested in many ways the natural architecture that enable our entire reality .
Geometry is one of the ways that allows us to contemplate or to understand what is hidden to our eyes, as the riddle of life.
The hexagon could express all the basic energy structures of the universe known and unknown through his Sacred Geometry, as well as “The Platonic solids” contains this infinite and inexhaustible information available to us all .”
New Birth
The sound of time arises in the Universe, above and beyond time.
Handmade / Fabric :
Organdy green silk, muslin green silk, hand made embroidery with silver gold yellow gold thread.
I completed my quest, finished “The Grail” dresses: a great transformation.
I completed my quest, finished “The Grail” dresses: a great transformation.
Sound is a particular type of vibration for the universe
We now know that the entire universe vibrates:
to manifest itself through waves that can be captured by something or someone.
matter, atoms, light, color . We can thus say that we are nothing but one sound , a vibration.”
“HEXAGON door invites you to the riddle of life.
You are even ENIGMA life.”
( Fukuko Ando )
“Life has always manifested in many ways the natural architecture that enable our entire reality .
Geometry is one of the ways that allows us to contemplate or to understand what is hidden to our eyes, as the riddle of life.
The hexagon could express all the basic energy structures of the universe known and unknown through his Sacred Geometry, as well as “The Platonic solids” contains this infinite and inexhaustible information available to us all .”
Three Grail dresses are ONE
The quest for a sacred object as life’s goal, even risking one’s very life, demonstrates that one’s purpose may be more important than one’s own existence.
A MOVEMENT BEFORE A BETTER WORLD
Handmade / Fabric :
Sateen black / white and red silk, hand made embroidery with silver gold yellow gold thread.
The Grail is a quest for the truth about Life
The Blood of the truth of our existence.
To create these dresses I had to experience the quest for the truth
between life and death.
It was a great transformation.
Sound is a particular type of vibration for the universe
We now know that the entire universe vibrates:
to manifest itself through waves that can be captured by something or someone.
matter, atoms, light, color . We can thus say that we are nothing but one sound , a vibration.”
“HEXAGON door invites you to the riddle of life.
You are even ENIGMA life.”
( Fukuko Ando )
“Life has always manifested in many ways the natural architecture that enable our entire reality .
Geometry is one of the ways that allows us to contemplate or to understand what is hidden to our eyes, as the riddle of life.
The hexagon could express all the basic energy structures of the universe known and unknown through his Sacred Geometry, as well as “The Platonic solids” contains this infinite and inexhaustible information available to us all .”
Three Grail dresses are ONE
The quest for a sacred object as life’s goal, even risking one’s very life, demonstrates that one’s purpose may be more important than one’s own existence.
A MOVEMENT BEFORE A BETTER WORLD
Handmade / Fabric :
Sateen black / white and red silk, hand made embroidery with silver gold yellow gold thread.
The Grail is a quest for the truth about Life
The Blood of the truth of our existence.
To create these dresses I had to experience the quest for the truth
between life and death.
It was a great transformation.
Sound is a particular type of vibration for the universe
We now know that the entire universe vibrates:
to manifest itself through waves that can be captured by something or someone.
matter, atoms, light, color . We can thus say that we are nothing but one sound , a vibration.”
“HEXAGON door invites you to the riddle of life.
You are even ENIGMA life.”
( Fukuko Ando )
“Life has always manifested in many ways the natural architecture that enable our entire reality .
Geometry is one of the ways that allows us to contemplate or to understand what is hidden to our eyes, as the riddle of life.
The hexagon could express all the basic energy structures of the universe known and unknown through his Sacred Geometry, as well as “The Platonic solids” contains this infinite and inexhaustible information available to us all .”
Three Grail dresses are ONE
The quest for a sacred object as life’s goal, even risking one’s very life, demonstrates that one’s purpose may be more important than one’s own existence.
A MOVEMENT BEFORE A BETTER WORLD
Handmade / Fabric :
Sateen black / white silk, hand made embroidery with gold yellow gold metallic black.
The Grail is a quest for the truth about Life
The Blood of the truth of our existence.
To create these dresses I had to experience the quest for the truth
between life and death.
It was a great transformation.
Sound is a particular type of vibration for the universe
We now know that the entire universe vibrates:
to manifest itself through waves that can be captured by something or someone.
matter, atoms, light, color . We can thus say that we are nothing but one sound , a vibration.”
“HEXAGON door invites you to the riddle of life.
You are even ENIGMA life.”
( Fukuko Ando )
“Life has always manifested in many ways the natural architecture that enable our entire reality .
Geometry is one of the ways that allows us to contemplate or to understand what is hidden to our eyes, as the riddle of life.
The hexagon could express all the basic energy structures of the universe known and unknown through his Sacred Geometry, as well as “The Platonic solids” contains this infinite and inexhaustible information available to us all .”
Cycles of time in the Galaxy.
The Maya Code reveals the original memory of our galactic birth.
The Maya calendar.
I have seen the galactic body.
Handmade / Fabric :
Sateen black silk, hand made embroidery with yellow gold thread.
ALPHA :
A tiny region of the Milky Way
Sound is a particular type of vibration for the universe
We now know that the entire universe vibrates:
to manifest itself through waves that can be captured by something or someone.
matter, atoms, light, color . We can thus say that we are nothing but one sound , a vibration.”
“HEXAGON door invites you to the riddle of life.
You are even ENIGMA life.”
( Fukuko Ando )
“Life has always manifested in many ways the natural architecture that enable our entire reality .
Geometry is one of the ways that allows us to contemplate or to understand what is hidden to our eyes, as the riddle of life.
The hexagon could express all the basic energy structures of the universe known and unknown through his Sacred Geometry, as well as “The Platonic solids” contains this infinite and inexhaustible information available to us all .”
Cycles of time in the Galaxy.
The Maya Code reveals the original memory of our galactic birth.
The Maya calendar.
I have seen the galactic body.
Handmade / Fabric :
Sateen black silk, hand made embroidery with silver thread.
OMEGA :
Over ten million stars.
Sound is a particular type of vibration for the universe
We now know that the entire universe vibrates:
to manifest itself through waves that can be captured by something or someone.
matter, atoms, light, color . We can thus say that we are nothing but one sound , a vibration.”
“HEXAGON door invites you to the riddle of life.
You are even ENIGMA life.”
( Fukuko Ando )
“Life has always manifested in many ways the natural architecture that enable our entire reality .
Geometry is one of the ways that allows us to contemplate or to understand what is hidden to our eyes, as the riddle of life.
The hexagon could express all the basic energy structures of the universe known and unknown through his Sacred Geometry, as well as “The Platonic solids” contains this infinite and inexhaustible information available to us all .”
The Archangel
I wanted to begin creating the first dress from the power of that light,
METATRON
is the most powerful light of the archangels.
forming the intention of completing 12 dresses.
Handmade / Fabric :
Muslin white cotton, hand made embroidery with gold thread.
C – D – E – B – A
Floating in empty space,
millions of light-years separate them from each other.
Galaxies are the cells of the Universe.
Sound is a particular type of vibration for the universe
We now know that the entire universe vibrates:
to manifest itself through waves that can be captured by something or someone.
matter, atoms, light, color . We can thus say that we are nothing but one sound , a vibration.”
“HEXAGON door invites you to the riddle of life.
You are even ENIGMA life.”
( Fukuko Ando )
“Life has always manifested in many ways the natural architecture that enable our entire reality .
Geometry is one of the ways that allows us to contemplate or to understand what is hidden to our eyes, as the riddle of life.
The hexagon could express all the basic energy structures of the universe known and unknown through his Sacred Geometry, as well as “The Platonic solids” contains this infinite and inexhaustible information available to us all .”
Lotus petals open in this world. The truth that turns 7 times and rises on the 8th. Courage and Patience. Walking, step by step.
Taffeta Polyester / Embroidery thread
A lotus flower is life-centred, shining beyond everything. The lotus flower is not affected by muddy water. It is a symbol of joy that shines through the mud. A person’s true joy and happiness must arise after they overcome hardships and break through muddy waters, like a lotus flower blooming.
Lotus petals open in this world. The truth that turns 7 times and rises on the 8th. Courage and Patience. Walking, step by step.
Taffeta Polyester / Embroidery thread
A lotus flower is life-centred, shining beyond everything. The lotus flower is not affected by muddy water. It is a symbol of joy that shines through the mud. A person’s true joy and happiness must arise after they overcome hardships and break through muddy waters, like a lotus flower blooming.
After darkness and evil are swallowed by the great flower of light, quietly, surely, slowly, blood vessels of light begin to flow.The veins of light pass through everything.
Taffeta Polyester / Embroidery thread
A lotus flower is life-centred, shining beyond everything. The lotus flower is not affected by muddy water. It is a symbol of joy that shines through the mud. A person’s true joy and happiness must arise after they overcome hardships and break through muddy waters, like a lotus flower blooming.
The power of light eats up all darkness and evil, and the flower of light blooms. Everything is swallowed up by the great flower of light.
Taffeta silk / Embroidery thread
A lotus flower is life-centred, shining beyond everything. The lotus flower is not affected by muddy water. It is a symbol of joy that shines through the mud. A person’s true joy and happiness must arise after they overcome hardships and break through muddy waters, like a lotus flower blooming.
In my work, a piece of fabric is transformed into a dress through an intense and unbroken engagement with each wave of change in the fabric’s own swell and movement.
The starting point is a flat piece of fabric. Sewing a raised broderie into this flat surface introduces a new three-dimensional note, creating waves of movement and new shapes and swell as the fabric responds.
I make a single cut into the new swell in the fabric. The fabric responds again and
I follow the fabric’s waves of movement intuitively. From action to response, the story of this dress is being written, moment to moment, as each change and response happens.
My hands have to see and grasp the story that the fabric is telling. The fabric takes on a life of its own, with new mandalas flowering in it, one after another.
More complex shapes are created by cross cuts, twists in the fabric, new broderies.
After a long time, my hands become still. The dress is complete: a piece of fabric has become a living mandala.
I work so that different dimensions can flower one by one on the same piece of fabric, just as the petals of a lotus flower open one after another.
Like the cell and the body, we can zoom in to see the micro-mandalas sewn into the detail of the dress, and we can stand back to see the macro-mandala of the whole dress.
Fukuko Ando
May all people in the world be content. May they see the lotus spark in all others, and may the light of love shine in our hearts. May all live in harmony.
Fukuko Ando
In my work, a piece of fabric is transformed into a dress through an intense and unbroken engagement with each wave of change in the fabric’s own swell and movement.
The starting point is a flat piece of fabric. Sewing a raised broderie into this flat surface introduces a new three-dimensional note, creating waves of movement and new shapes and swell as the fabric responds.
I make a single cut into the new swell in the fabric. The fabric responds again and
I follow the fabric’s waves of movement intuitively. From action to response, the story of this dress is being written, moment to moment, as each change and response happens.
My hands have to see and grasp the story that the fabric is telling. The fabric takes on a life of its own, with new mandalas flowering in it, one after another.
More complex shapes are created by cross cuts, twists in the fabric, new broderies.
After a long time, my hands become still. The dress is complete: a piece of fabric has become a living mandala.
I work so that different dimensions can flower one by one on the same piece of fabric, just as the petals of a lotus flower open one after another.
Like the cell and the body, we can zoom in to see the micro-mandalas sewn into the detail of the dress, and we can stand back to see the macro-mandala of the whole dress.
Fukuko Ando
A piece of fabric becomes a lotus mandala dress.
The fabric is like the soil in which to sow the seeds of the mandala.
The needle becomes the mandala seed.
Each stitch draws a new world.
Cutting the fabric brings forth a new dimensional space.
New petals open in a new space. A new life opens skyward.
The opening of a new life expresses the mandala consciousness.
The fabric is imbued with consciousness.
Blue rose. Blue light. The light of the blue rose reaches deep into the ground to open the stone door. Everything revives. Everything is resurrected.
Taffeta silk / Embroidery thread
A lotus flower is life-centred, shining beyond everything. The lotus flower is not affected by muddy water. It is a symbol of joy that shines through the mud. A person’s true joy and happiness must arise after they overcome hardships and break through muddy waters, like a lotus flower blooming.
Creating these 48 Mandala Lotus Dresses, here at this elder stage of my life, is hope, awareness and prayer. Creation is a source of pure inspiration taking form as the human life force.
Inspiration arises from within, when you feel the truth burning within you. I follow that inspiration.
The consciousness of the Mandala Lotus was born out of an effort to preserve pure light as inspiration in this chaotic world, a place like muddy water.
Yes, what we need to know above all is the law of effort. If we forget this necessity, we must pay the price of physical and mental degeneration: our consciousness loses its power to follow inspiration.
And creation may be selflessness. With constant patience, eliminating one’s own thoughts, eliminating one’s ego, connecting with inspiration without being distracted by the muddy spirit of the world.
Our life force is naturally maintained by the cosmic order. The fundamental reality of life, the sublime joy of human existence, no matter how miserable, bitter, or dirty the world may be. If beautiful, shining lotus flowers exist in this world, may we not also live like them? That awareness should change this world.
A lotus flower is life-centred, shining beyond everything. The lotus flower is not affected by muddy water. It is a symbol of joy that shines through the mud. A person’s true joy and happiness must arise after they overcome hardships and break through muddy waters, like a lotus flower blooming.
For me, the effort to break through the muddy waters of this world is the perseverance to use fabric and thread to carve an eternity out of this world’s moments. It is a time of patience that transforms each stitch into eternity.
Only the presence of cloth, thread, and one needle weave eternal time. I am not there. In this world of greed, dirt, and deadly laziness, every movement of my hand dreams of a future lotus flower.
One day when the 48 lotus dresses bloom, it will surely become a great mandala. The time will come when its absoluteness will pierce the darkness of this world, and with patience and effort, connecting each moment with inspiration, there will dawn an era in which newborn truths shall bloom. Like Mt. Fuji, which stands tall, unaffected by the poisons of this world.
Chronological order :
| Mandala Lotus 01 | 2020 |
| Mandala Lotus 02 | 2021 |
| Mandala Lotus 03 | 2021 |
| Mandala Lotus 04 | 2022 |
| Mandala Lotus 05 | 2022 |
| Mandala Lotus 06 | 2022 |
| Mandala Lotus 07 | 2022 |
| Mandala Lotus 08 | 2023 |
| Mandala Lotus 09 | 2024 |
| Mandala Lotus 10 | 2024 |
| Mandala Lotus 11 | 2024 |
When I was little, I read the story of Chūjō-hime (747–775). And I was very impressed.I always remembered that I longed for the process that the lotus thread was pulled out, and when it touched flowers of various colors, the thread was dyed like a dream and the mandala was completed.
Fukuko Ando
The ritual fire becomes a flame. Purifying flowers in the burning time. The flower of flame burns.
Taffeta Polyester / Embroidery thread
A lotus flower is life-centred, shining beyond everything. The lotus flower is not affected by muddy water. It is a symbol of joy that shines through the mud. A person’s true joy and happiness must arise after they overcome hardships and break through muddy waters, like a lotus flower blooming.
Mother crystal flower. Mother crystal flower that exists in the transparent wave of time. Mother crystal flowers make a lot of seeds. It is mother
Taffeta silk / Embroidery thread
A lotus flower is life-centred, shining beyond everything. The lotus flower is not affected by muddy water. It is a symbol of joy that shines through the mud. A person’s true joy and happiness must arise after they overcome hardships and break through muddy waters, like a lotus flower blooming.
Swamp of time. The moment when a miracle flower is born from the green light. The light of the source of creation
Taffeta silk / Embroidery thread
A lotus flower is life-centred, shining beyond everything. The lotus flower is not affected by muddy water. It is a symbol of joy that shines through the mud. A person’s true joy and happiness must arise after they overcome hardships and break through muddy waters, like a lotus flower blooming.
Fukuko Ando, who worked and lived in Paris for the past 25 years,
created a first series of 140 dolls in crochet during the summer of 2005.Having recently moved back to Japan, during the Autumn of 2019 she created a new series of dolls which is now presented in this exhibition
( Lisbon / Year : 2020 )
ORIENT MUSEUM
(Museu do Oriente) Lisbon
Year 2020
WEAVING (THE) COSMOS
The Japanese artist and fashion designer Fukuko Ando, who worked and lived in Paris for the past 25 years, created a first series of 140 dolls in crochet during the summer of 2005. Having recently moved back to Japan, she produced a new series of 112 dolls which is now presented for the first time in this exhibition, alongside with a part of the 2005 production, previously shown in Tokyo and Paris. They are 25 variations of the seven sisters of the Greek mythology after which the seven brightest stars forming the Pleiades were named: Alcyone, Merope, Maia, Electra, Taygete, Celaeno, Sterope.
The artist endowed each doll with different codes and messages, based on the concept according to which “no human bodies are the same, and yet we are all essentially united in the cosmic dance of the universe”. Perfecting her technical skills while collaborating with Christian Dior and Christian Lacroix, in Paris, Ando went on to create her own collections. Her work is made out of the finest fabrics and materials, through a long, unique and rigorous manual process. Ando’s dresses reflect her deeply spiritual and mystical vision of life.
The 12 Dresses ensemble refers to the four fundamental forces that govern all interactions in the Universe. Consciously eschewing fashion’s traditional patterns and procedures for confectioning a garment, Fukuko Ando creates dresses that first and foremost respect and follow the shapes of the human body. Skilfully harmonising classical creative techniques with the natural form and movement of the body, she sublimates both. Through her wearable and danceable luminous and colourful visual poems, Ando explores the secret magic of lively matters with which she re-enchants the haute couture, intertwining being and appearing, ancient wisdom and a joyful spontaneous infancy spirit.
The Japanese born designer Fukuko Ando has a very personal vision of fashion and of the creative art of garment design. As her unique process and style have developed over time, Ando has stepped beyond the usual confines of Haute Couture to explore how the pieces she creates may express or manifest different aspects of our cultures, of our relations to nature and of our spiritualities.
With her creative imagination, Ando explores the invisible and energetic dimensions of the matters she uses. Confectioning the dresses directly on wood mannequins surrounded by mirrors, she is intuitively guided to follow a natural and fluid yet sophisticated movement that consists of folds, rays, grooves, veins and ribs, volutes and irregular curves forming a complex global structure. Differing from straight lines, repetitive geometrical patterns and flattened shapes, her dresses are characterized by an organic, ever-changing dynamism. Thus, several heterogeneous effects are produced such as asymmetrical reliefs and protruding volumes, elongated or truncated planes, transparencies, reflections, opacities and openings. A certain play of shadows and shimmering lights is also skilfully produced in order to reveal the quintessence of each piece, visually manifested through singular forms, colours and textures to wear. When one looks at the pieces closely, their poetic vibration can be felt.
Throughout her career, Ando used an equally astounding presentation display. Instead of the traditional models’ walks on the podium, she regularly worked in collaboration with professional dancers and choreographers to exhibit her creations.
Paris, France, 2008-2012.
Made between 2008 and 2012, the 12 Dresses ensemble explores the tension between stillness, movement and flow, between infinite variation and oneness. In a very innovative and singular way, Fukuko Ando fuses design and haute couture with the art of sculpture, as she elevates the fine materials and garments to symbolic and mysterious apparitions. With a distinctive mystical twist, Ando expresses her deep spirituality through these twelve dresses. Each of them is conceived as a codified message, an in-depth journey from the maze of the atomically tiny to the astronomically vast.
As indicated by their titles, and according to a peculiar syncretism between Kabbalah, Christianity and Shintoism, the whole ensemble contains numerous references ranging from ancient alchemy and esoteric myths about origins, spiritual quests and evolution, to the notion of harmonia mundi, along with the four primary elements and the stages of human life. All dresses are characterised by their richly handmade embroideries, their uniqueness and magnificent vibrational presence.
you can visit the official site of this collection by following this link:
https://www.12robes.com/
Katherine Sirois / Curator
Inauguration:
20th February 2020 until 13th September
I had an intuition in 2020 of the dresses that I should make during the rest of my lifetime. When I was little, I read the story of Chūjō-hime (747–775) and it made a great impression on me. I have always remembered how I longed for the process by which the thread was drawn out from the stem of the lotus, and when it touched the many, coloured flowers, the thread itself changed colour, as in a dream, and the mandala was completed.Chūjō-hime is credited with weaving the Lotus Thread, Taima Mandala, a mandala depicting the cosmography of the Pure Land. It is said that she managed this miracle in a single night. Some versions of the story say that she was aided in the task by an apparition of the Great Spirit in response to her prayers. Other beliefs hold that she was herself an incarnation of Kannon, the Bodhisattva of Compassion.
At the beginning of creation, lotus flowers bloom from the swamps of the universe.
A world of silence where many lotus mandalas bloom and pray.
At the centre of the universe, the Creator God prepares a new world.
A world of eternal silence, where lotus petals smile like a gentle Goddess.
Infinite prayers overlap across time and space.
As long as I have my life, how many mandala prayers can I weave?
Mandala Lotus prayers as disciples who prepare the time for the birth of the next Buddha. If I can make 48, can I dream of unlocking the path to the new world of Bodhisattva Maitreya, our next Buddha 5,670 million years in the future who, it is said, will appear and rescue humanity?
Imagine a golden dolphin full of joy and jumping happily
( Fukuko Ando )
Dolphin Mystery
Year / 2006
Dolphin Wisdom
Year / 2006
Dolphin Smile
Year / 2006
Dolphin Voice
Year / 2006
Dolphin Song
Year / 2006
Dolphin Light
Year / 2006
Dolphin Jump
Year / 2006
Dolphin Heart
Year / 2006
Dolphin Waterfall
Year / 2006
Dolphin Joy
Year / 2006
Dolphin Path
Year / 2006
