RedShift at Body Implement

photos by James Prinz

I created RedShift Party Hats in leather and feather for "Body Implement" at Nick Cave's Sound Suit Shop in Chicago's South Loop, November 2010. There's a narrative behind these hats which begins 13 years ago with a magazine tear sheet and the performance "Mercuria" by Lynn Book and Theo Bleckmann at "Here" in New York. I designed the costumes for these two vocalists who embodied more content than I've ever cloaked. Please see the clip...

This is a story about the infinite in the everyday, when invention interrupts intention with fluid generosity.

In Ridicule Of Spectacle

Experimental Sound Studio: Project Space, February 2009
 
This was a performance, drawing session, and photo shoot to bridge the disciplines of art and dressmaking through the act of modeling.  To develop this piece, I investigated the idea of being tarred and feathered, the alchemical symbol of the blackened mirror, and butoh performance images.  The  visual narrative took on a textural layer with writer Sara Levine's prose poem "In Which the Seamstress Speaks."  I am continually interested in how personal identity can be shaped through material interactions, and enjoy rearranging fairy tale outcomes to escape set orders.


The result of this project is a series of hand made look books for RedShift, one of which is in The Joan Flasch Artist's Book Collection.

There's a fine line between self-reflection and self-voyeurism.  

Look beyond the red dotted swatch for details...

See more photos here

A poem by Paul Shullenberger in response to "In Ridicule Of Spectacle"

party hat central calling
elusive tassels’ nonesuch
numinous graffiti hotline:
does a stitch in time throw
clocks out of whack?

wear your words lightly
if they float you’re there
grains of sand are feathers
through foo stints as hair

stutter-dance with doodles
peripherally lensed
landscape’s scalp massage it
grab knead twang the air
--for kristin mariani



Many thanks to Carol McCurdy, Ella Stauber, David Ettinger, Sara Levine, Adam Vida, and Alex Inglizian