Aoi Yoshizawa is a Japanese textile designer and artist based in Helsinki, renowned for her large-scale loom installations that transform entire spaces. Fascinated by the process of hand weaving with its repetitive actions, technical precision and slow, meditative nature, she brings new elements to an ancient craft. Originally from Japan, Aoi Yoshizawa has lived in the Nordic countries since 2006 and holds degrees from Aalto University and Bergen National Academy of Arts.

Heirloom
In many textile technologies, such as hand knitting, crochet, or knotting, small tools can be used to create large textiles. However, weaving requires larger structures—looms—to hold the warp threads while the weft thread is interlaced over and under them. Various innovations have been developed to facilitate and accelerate this process; among them heddles, which separate the warp threads for easier passage, and shuttles, which efficiently carry the weft thread across the warp.

Aoi Yoshizawa has built a loom installation into the castle’s architecture. The installation merges two types of looms: the backstrap loom, where the weaver controls the thread tension using their own body weight, and the warp-weighted loom, which uses suspended weights to maintain tension. Rocks from the castle’s garden in delicate bags serve as loom weights—a recurring motif in her work. The thread colours reference the frescoes in the space, which depict colourful ribbons and other textile elements and were meticulously documented by Aoi Yoshizawa during her residency in May 2024.