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Textile art has generally not been afforded attention on par with painting or sculpture, or even other media within the broad category of design. Although design departments have been incorporated into major museums throughout the world, the fact remains that the applied arts are considered inferior to the "high arts." Such is reflected in the divergent vocabularies one uses to assess painting and sculpture on the one hand, and design on the other. For the former, the terminology and arguments of canonical and contemporary aestheticians are employed to justify value judgments, whereas for design, novelty is the overwhelming consideration. The Baltimore Museum of Art's new exhibit on on Japanese textile company's productions should clearly demonstrate how mistakenly textile art has been debased.

In 2002, the BMA began to collect pieces by NUNO, which is widely regarded as one of the most important textile producers in the world. NUNO (Japanese for "fabric") was founded in 1984 by Junichi Arai and Reiko Sudo. The company began as a small retail outlet that manufactured and sold traditional yet functional Japanese fabrics. Arai, who has worked in textiles since his teens, was interested in creating fabrics that combined traditional techniques with modern industry; an interest that has led to nearly 40 patents for new types of threads.

Arai left NUNO in 1987, and the mantle transferred to one of his young colleagues, Reiko Sudo. Before taking the helm, Sudo had traveled throughout Japan for NUNO, researching different production techniques as well as accumulating a corps of artists. Sudo also drew upon her own life to inspire the company's direction. Sudo grew up in a family of cloth makers, and she later herself went on to study textiles at Musashino Art University in Tokyo. Sudo's life-long interactions with textiles and cloths inspired her to make NUNO an innovator in blending modern technology with traditional Japanese methods.

An example of this fusion of old and new is found in Rubber Band Scatter. From afar, the work appears to merely be a white fabric with hundreds of small rings of various shades of yellow and gold. Upon closer inspection, and glancing at the title, one realizes that the circles are meant to mimic rubber bands. To achieve this effect, NUNO workers first photocopied random arrangements of rubber bands. Then, the resulting image was silk-screened onto cloth using a silicon resin. A glossy film is then added, which together with the silicone resin gives the illusion of overlapping rubber bands. The combination of kitsch and class in this piece is ingeniously executed, saving it from its potential gimmickry.

Another innovative yet understated piece is Burner Dye (Karadaki). This fabric of soft and silky grays is deceptive as the threads used in this piece are actually composed of ultra-fine stainless steel, the same kind used to reinforce tires. Similarly, Copper Cloth's radiant pink gloss is created out of thin copper telephone wire along with a synthetic called promix, made of regenerated milk casein and the petrochemical acrylonitrile. It is obvious that the novelty of these two pieces was not done for its own sake. The highly unique materials were employed because they are the best to make such stunning works of art.

The highlight of the BMA show is certainly Origami Pleat, a work that is simultaneously elegant and unconventional. The fabric is folded in such a way that it seems to unravel like a waterfall, with the light reflecting off its various angles and depths in surprising and often exciting ways.

NUNO: Japanese Tradition/Innovation in Cloth is an exhibit that proves that the treatment of textiles as a second-class artistic medium is unfounded. By combing modern and traditional techniques NUNO fashions fabrics in a way that demonstrates the potential of all the applied arts. NUNO: Japanese Tradition/Innovation in Cloth is on display at the BMA through October 7, 2007.

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