A Flower Hymn to Mola

Space flower garden／KEITA + quilt by Fumiko Nakayama

Mola, the traditional folk craft of Panama, layers cloth upon cloth with exquisite skill to express, within a flat plane, an energetic sense of depth and a deeply resonant image. Here I have used mirrors to heighten, in flowers, the “beauty of accumulation born of layering” that lies within the mola technique. The flowers you see for real are the first layer of cloth; the flowers glimpsed in the mirror are the second. When you see the two together, the skillful power and the passionate, positive feeling that Fumiko Nakayama puts into her mola are drawn out, and become one completed form. If that conveys to you a sixth sense — the sense of being moved — nothing could make me happier.