In the exhibition The Dreamweaver and the Moonraker, artists Susanne Wellm and Akiko Hirai explore memory, material, and expression through contrasting artistic approaches.
Susanne Wellm blends photography with weaving while Akiko Hirai showcases her powerful, expressive Moon Jars. Both artists create emotionally charged, visually striking works each using distinct techniques and materials.

Susanne Wellm blends photography and textile art, constructing nostalgic, narrative-driven compositions that merge fiction with reality. Her woven photo pieces, open to interpretation, quietly reflect everyday experiences with subtle emotional depth. Originally trained in textile design, Wellm later transitioned to photography, combining both disciplines in her process. She digitally edits her photographs, prints them, then slices them into thin strips. Weaving these strips with visible knots and loose threads, she creates richly textured, poetic works that evoke themes of memory, identity, and time.

Akiko Hirai an acclaimed ceramic artist, reinterprets the traditional Korean Moon Jar with dynamic energy and sculptural expression. Her fascination began after seeing an 18th-century Moon Jar at the British Museum, once owned by Bernard Leach and Lucie Rie. Traditional Moon Jars feature subtle minimalist textures, but Hirai’s versions burst with burst with dynamic energy and raw emotion. She begins by throwing the lower half on a wheel and then adds a hand-coiled upper half, using the form as a foundation for her expressive surface techniques.

Together, Wellm and Hirai bridge tradition and contemporary practice, weaving a shared story of transformation through photography, textiles, and ceramics.