Dutch Elm shibari structure

‍Hua Hua, the Shibari artist who asked me to make this structure, has a love for Japanese joinery and uses the freestanding structure for performances and workshops. Such a pleasure to be working BIG on a challenging assignment like this. The structure has to carry the weight of one or more persons so there's no question it must be safe and sound. We used beautiful dark reddish Dutch Elm wood with some occasional lighter shades. The light colored pegs, holding the structure tighly together, are made from Ash wood.

With much pleasure I was working together with André Cramer, befriended architect and builder - with an interest in working with solid wood.

Shibari is a Japanese art form in which a person is tied with rope in an artistic and sensual/erotic manner. The binding itself is an important part of the ritual and is guided by aesthetic rules. Even though Shibari has an erotic touch, I see much similarity to wood joinery. Both are techniques for joining something together (making something tightly secure). One using rope, the other wood. In both practices there is a need to make it technically sound and safe to use in the first place and aesthetically appealing secondly. Rope and wood are natural materials and sensual to the touch.

Photographs by Anne Huijnen
Model: Noana_arts