Academic Associate
Rosanna Rios Perez is an artist working with the traditional Japanese textile methods of katazome (stencil dyeing) and yūzen (freehand dyeing). Her PhD at Kyoto Seika University focused on the textile artist Yunoki Samiro, a pupil of Keisuke Serizawa and a member of the Mingei movement in Japan, delving into his dye work to unravel the turning point from folk crafts to the arts. Her research examines how significant changes in traditional dyeing methods, driven by social transformation and vanishing crafts traditions, have redefined contemporary craft and artistic practices.
As a Robert and Lisa Sainsbury Fellow at the Sainsbury Institute for the Study of Japanese Arts and Cultures (2023 – 2024), Rosanna reviewed Keisuke Serizawa’s illustrated books, Ehon Don Kihōte (1936), and the Shinpan Don Kihōte (1976), for which she has been working on journal articles and lectures, highlighting their significance as katazome dyed pieces on paper. She is currently researching Bernard Leach’s trip to Venezuela in 1966, where he held the exhibition “Del Pierre – Hamada – Leach” at the Museo de Bellas Artes, Caracas.
Selected Publications
- 「世界中で「キモノ」が巻き起こしたセンセーション…ドレスから「あのSF映画」にまで、変幻自在の大進化」Newsweek Japan (November 11, 2024)
- “V&A Kimono exhibition: charting evolution of garment that has influenced art, fashion and film,” The Conversation, September 2024.
- “On Samiro Yunoki’s artworks (1948 – 2021,” Kyoto Seika Journal (February 2022), No. 55, pp. 143 – 156.
- “On Self-expression: Some Considerations on Katazome and Printmaking in Mingei Crafts,” Kyoto Seika Journal (February 2021), No. 54, pp. 191 – 198.