Material Becomes the Thing: Works in Cloth

Solo Exhibition                                           

Aron Packer Projects at Space 900/ 1042 Wesley Ave / Evanston / November 11-13, 2016

 

Image- Toile III, thread, cloth and leather. 2016 24" x 30"  Photo: Bill Burlingham

My practice is an ongoing discourse between art and design. I acknowledge the unstable distinctions between the two disciplines, and my investigations unfold in this unstable territory, continually questioning how the body is figured through fashion, place, and labor.

Dressmakers are often confined to small spaces, small motor skills, mechanical cycles and repetitive processes. Handiwork is concealed in the inner linings of a garment. I don’t always want to stay inside of a dress. How can I use my skill set to ad(dress) rooms that the body occupies? How can I build coherent relationships from disparate parts? How can I connect the flow of raw material in my studio to a larger material stream and thought process?

Line is the fundamental element in my stitched drawings for Material Becomes the Thing, as line is the fundamental structure of cloth and dressmaking. It exists as a filament, a fabric grain, a tracing, a seam, a hem, and an opening. My raw material for this work is a by-product of my dressmaking process and comes in parts. Thread is my connective device to reintegrate cloth fragments and garment remnants into coherent visual relationships. I structure through needlework a crosshatch of materials to establish a new value to what is typically discarded, a new surface to reveal what is commonly concealed in the facades of fashion. 

- Kristin Mariani