A Conversation Between Curators on
Art on the Edge of Fashion
Background Information: This summer, Director Marilyn A. Zeitlin (MZ) and Curator Heather Sealy Lineberry (HL) spent some time in discussion of one of the ASU Art Museum's major new exhibitions, Art on the Edge of Fashion. Months of planning and research took place before the exhibition opened to the public on February 1, 1997. Following is a transcript of their conversation.
MZ:
What is the concept of the exhibition?
HL:
Art on the Edge of Fashion presents the work of eight contemporary artists
who all utilize the familiar and prevalent visual language of clothing and
appearance. Many of the pieces in the exhibition actually take the form of
clothing, although they are not meant to be "clothing." They are
completely unwearable because of their size, materials, or distortions. The
artists use clothing forms to examine issues of identity, particularly gender,and
to examine the societal forces that dictate the way we look. Sociologists
have demonstrated that we read people quickly and easily based on their appearance,
on their clothing, hair, skin color and tone, and body shape. The work in
this exhibition questions quick assumptions based on appearance, and scrutinizes
the forces, like fashion, that determine appearance and so indicate identity.
For example, Beverly Semmes makes dresses that resemble cocktail dresses or
sweet high-waisted dresses with Peter Pan collars. But they are huge. They
hang on the wall and drape down onto the floor. She mocks the styles and stereotypes
of women and their clothing, and the strangely shaped clothes that we drape
and squeeze onto our bodies. On the other hand, Semmes also empowers the image
of women by creating these massive dresses that free the body from constraint
and seem best suited for Amazons.
MZ:
Why organize this exhibition now?
HL:
This question basically started my research: Why are so many artists today
making work incorporating or examining clothes, appearance,and fashion? In
addition to the eight selected artists, there are many others across the country,and
I can think of a number of art students at ASU who are dealing with these
same issues and forms.
Like many contemporary artists, the artists in Art on the Edge of Fashion
are trying to pin down the nature of identity. This process is complicated
by our rapidly changing world and becomes intensified as we approach the end
of the Millennium. Curiously all of the artists in the exhibition insist on
using hand techniques traditionally associated with clothing at some point
in their artistic process. As new technologies mushroom, and fewer objects
around us are hand-made, it is as if they need a physical and psychological
grounding to define identity.
MZ:
Why at this Museum?
HL:
The ASU Art Museum has a long tradition of collecting and showing handmade
objects, specifically craft. Recently we have expanded our programming to
include new media and new approaches to art-making. The artists in this exhibition
span those two concerns. They recognize the power of materials and processes
on the artists, during making, and on the viewer. Many of the pieces in the
show are made, at least in part, from very familiar media -- fabric like that
which we sleep under, eat off of and wear. But the artists freely make use
of other media for their final presentations and are not afraid of new media.
The show includes sculpture, photographs, installations, performance, and
video. The artists seem to recognize few barriers and use whatever they can
to convey their content.
Art on the Edge of Fashion is at the ASU Art Museum from
February 1 through April 27, 1997.
Opening Reception: Saturday, February 1, 8-10 p.m.
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