denyse schmidt's 'any way you slice it' @ the university of bridgeport

on saturday our little family bopped over to the university of bridgeport's arnold bernhard center gallery to see quilter denyse schmidt's solo show, any way you slice it. i've been a fan of denyse's work for several years now...and was eager to get a chance to see her work up close (and personal).

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a little review of sorts!
the gallery is a part of the university of bridgeport; it being a saturday in late november, the place seemed pretty dead, literally and figuratively. there weren't many signs directing people anywhere (i only saw one small flyer for her exhibit by one of the entrances to the building). absolutely no one was milling around, on the campus, or in the building, or curiously, on the streets near the campus. kind of freaky.
according to a blurb about the show on her site, the solo exhibition "showcases recent quilts as well as earlier examples to provide a sense of continuity and context for the current work."
to set the scene for you: several beautiful quilts were hanging around on the walls of the room that held her show (see above, they are, allegedly, the recent work mentioned above); there was also a tv screen with a slideshow of projects made by various quilters and crafters using her fabrics or patterns (from her books and the like); examples of her mass produced finished quilts; samples of some of her quilt fabric designs; a binder filled with sketches and photographs that looked to be an illustration of her design and development process.
overall, the exhibit was nice... but also kind of strange, and weak and/or weirdly lacking in the way of context: explanation, relationship of the pieces to one another, things of that nature. what i was yearning for was more words...words about denyse herself, perhaps, words that told more about the specifics of the works on display, and so forth. perhaps at the opening she was there to provide that context i was craving? i don't know. maybe i was blind and missed something?
adding to the weirdness: two long tables along one of the walls were dressed with tablecloths and covered with stacks of empty, unused wine glasses, and the center of the room housed a collection of round cocktail tables. clearly there had been a party/talk/some event in the room in recent days but no one had bothered to clean up. seemed sloppy and strange and was kind of off-putting and distracted from the show.

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all that said...
i really liked many of the quilts on display...denyse clearly has a studied sense of design and color, a studied way of balancing blocks of intense, organically arranged color and pattern against proportionately vast areas of solid color. her art training (she was trained at RISD) is clearly apparent; her work transcends the categorization of "craft," veering definitively into the realm of (modern) art. forget putting these pieces on a bed; they rightfully deserve a big wall for display, contemplation...and adoration.
i especially loved the pair of orange and blue quilts (with the ladder placed between them); i'm having a big love affair with pairings blue and orange of late, so they really spoke to me. the off-white quilts with with the offset blocks with intense red, pink and green fabrics were also quite incredible. the camera on my iphone just couldn't do the colors and fabrics the justice they rightly deserved.

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ALERT: if you're in CT/the northeast/NYC metro area: you can still go see denyse's show! it's running until december 3rd, 2010.

derick melander: second hand (clothing) sculptures

(photos via derick melander)

you might just wear your secondhand clothing, but sculptor derick melander uses clothing cast-offs as an artistic medium, wherein the clothing itself is both a metaphor for people/individuals/society in general, and a means to create substantial structures with which one can react to and interact with. they very powerful pieces, visually, as well.

http://vimeo.com/moogaloop.swf?clip_id=8608547&server=vimeo.com&show_title=1&show_byline=1&show_portrait=0&color=&fullscreen=1

Into The Fold, Brooklyn Borough Hall from Derick Melander on Vimeo.

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says he, in his own words, about his work:

"I create large geometric configurations from carefully folded and stacked second-hand clothing. These structures take the form of wedges, columns, walls and enclosures, typically weighing between five hundred pounds and two tons. Smaller pieces directly interact with the surrounding architecture. Larger works create discrete environments.
As clothing wears, fades, stains and stretches it becomes an intimate record of our physical presence. It traces the edge of the body, defining the boundary between the individual and the outside world."

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i love the statement he makes toward the end of the little film, above:

"who are the people who wore this [clothing]?"

something i constantly think about, since so much of what i wear and have worn, lovingly, over the years, has been secondhand.
i love to ponder where my clothing has been, where it came from, who made it, who wore it, what they did in that clothing, why they decided to part with it. so many things to ponder...it can make for quite a nice reverie, when the mind has an idle moment.
what about you? do you ponder where your things have been? is that aspect of wearing secondhand clothing attractive to you? why or why not?

swank dollar: (killer) machine knits

(images via swank dollar)

i am all over, under, and into these crazy, almost tacky but awesomely, superbly wonderful machine knit garments by fiber artist/designer annie larsen, aka swank dollar. you need to come pick me up off the floor, i'm so floored by them, i am! check out swank dollar's blog here and flickr photostream here.

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a related (personal) aside: seeing all her incredible machine knit stuff makes me wish i had access to my knitting machine, but alas, she's in a cold, dark storage unit somewhere in the depths of the bronx until the snows melt. poo!