YES/ON 14th Street

YES/ON 14th Street is a processional performance for AiOP 2023: DRESS

Taking place in NY on October 13th, 14th, and 15th, 2023, two performers wearing my Text Toiles will address themes of intimacy, care, language and boundaries through the production, presentation, and dissemination of a series of care labels. With performers Erica Mott, Darling Shear, and in collaboration with Michael Workman, past and present-day literary histories surrounding 14th Street will enfold with questions of how identities are formed in relation to dress, and a specific, embodied sense of place.

"YES/ON 14th Street" is partially supported by a grant from the Illinois Arts Council Agency.

Part Cloth: La Divisione, 2022

Part Cloth: La Divisione is a 10 minute, single channel video installation framing two views between my body and its surrounding cloth during Michelle Grabner's Nido residency at the International Center for the Arts in Monte Castello di Vibio, Italy.

    

 Part Cloth: La Divisione Vimeo link

Wearing a dress I made from silk remnants, I ascended a staircase in the Persianni Studio Building to reach the highest accessible point of the village, and a view of the Tibor river. I took several videos through different openings from inside of the dress, capturing the fleeting moment of what was visible, and highlighting the presence of my body in relation to the scenic landscape. These views were recorded from the tower of a building which carries a history of landscape painting.

Installed at opposite ends in the crypt of the Church of SS. Filippo e Giacomo, Part Cloth: La Divisione is an integration of breakdowns and partings: the dress made of cloth parts, the parting of the dress to find a view, the projection of the video that parted the red velvet curtain, and the division of the dress into three remnants—two of which were installed in the projection windows opposite the stage where the video was installed. 

wall relief of dress parts

The body of the dress is now de-parted—a body of cloth split in a state of indeterminacy with remains in Monte Castelo di Vibio and Chicago. I am returning to Italy summer 2023 to revisit Monte Costello di Vibio, and restitch the dress parts for the staging of a new configuration of views.

This project was part of Michelle Grabner's 2022 robin, dove, swallow, thrush. An experimental exhibition alongside the artist residency called Nido organized by Michelle Grabner and Kelly Kaczynski at the International Center for the Arts, Monte Castello di Vibio, Italy.