Toki No Katachi | The Shape of Time

Nishiaizu International Art Village

Toki no Katachi | The Shape of Time

Time is often thought of as intangible—something fleeting, slipping past us, or dissolving into memory. Yet, it also accumulates, leaving behind traces that form the structure of our existence. Toki no Katachi (時の形), or The Shape of Time, explores how time manifests through repetition, routine, and imperceptible change.

Aislinn Janek’s work captures this through a restrained palette of whites and blacks

, layered into textured surfaces that speak to the quiet weight of time. The built-up acrylic paint mimics sedimentation, a slow collection of moments pressed into form. Sewn through the canvas, thread becomes both a mark and a structure, which is a delicate yet persistent act of stitching time into place.

Thread, though thin and pliant, carries a quiet resilience. A single strand may seem fragile, but when layered, knotted, or woven, it becomes strong—like memory, like habit, like time itself. In Japanese aesthetics, there is reverence for the unseen forces that shape us, for the spaces between. The stitches in Janek’s work act as both a tether and a fracture, a record of time’s passage and an acknowledgment of its impermanence.

Through this interplay of material and absence, Toki no Katachi asks: How does time shape us? And in turn, how do we shape time?