Kay Sekimachi
Photograph by Stone & Steccati
The diaphanous fiber hangings that Kay Sekimachi created in the 1960s call to mind sea creatures floating in the deep, or angels descending from heaven. Either way, they seem not of our world. This is partly to do with the unfamiliar material she used—nylon monofilament, of the kind used for fishing line—but even more with their unbelievable complexity. Somewhat like Ruth Asawa—another Bay Area artist of Japanese American heritage, with whom she was friendly—Sekimachi built impressive sculptural forms with finely detailed structure. But while Asawa relied largely on straightforward crochet (unconventionally applied to wire), Sekimachi had a much more technically complex repertoire.
She constructed the monofilament works on a multiharness loom, which allowed her to create intersecting planes that would unfold into a volumetric form once woven. As her career has progressed, she has explored many other techniques, including ikat dyeing, twining, basketry, and papermaking, which she employed in a celebrated series of paired bowls that she created with her late husband, the woodturner Bob Stocksdale.