Altered and Unraveled (the Cascade) Opens!

  • September 10, 2010 11:40 pm

a site-specific, collaborative installation

East Central College’s Art Gallery


Altered & Unraveled (the Cascade) is constructed from

recycled and reclaimed clothing

donated by

GGS WIPING PRODUCTS, LLC of Houston, TX,

and the international association

S.M.A.R.T.

(Secondary Materials and Recycled Textiles).


Additional clothing and textiles donated by

ECC students and local community members.

Sewing machines donated by a community member.

Wood reclaimed from the artist’s property.


Project Collaborators

Jennifer Van Winkle, artist-in-residence

&

ECC Student Collaborators

(Spring 2010 & Fall 2010)


Amanda Adams

Amanda Aichholz

Andi Blunt

Nick Brobst

Carli Cavanaugh

Samantha Clark

Clinton Cook

Morgaine Denison

Samantha Eversole

Ethan Heberer

Amanda Jensen

Emily Keefe

Matt Lawson

Kastyn Matheny

Natasha Matthews

Ginny McNatt

Amber Muir

Daniel Neubert

Janet Simpson

Shauna Smith

Brian Studdard


Installation Assistance

Janet De Aguero, Guliano Bruno, Hannah Mihlfeld, Randell Neel, Andi Placht,

Barbara Placht,, Lydia Placht, Virginia Satchell, Joseph Walls, Heather Young


Braiding Assistance

Spring 2010

Valarie McEuen, Art Teacher and her

12 Bourbon High School Students

&

Shelly Stieger, Art Teacher and her

34 Cuba High School Art Students

&

Barbara Placht and Jim Kapusciak, Art Teachers

and their 359 Union High School Students

and

more braiding by about

100 ECC Art Appreciation Students


Thank you

Mark Eaton, Director of Facilities & Grounds

Stacy Langan, Office Clerk Fine Arts & Humanities

Jean McCann, Vice President of Instruction

Vince Niehaus, Division Chair Fine and Performing Arts

Dot Schowe, Director of Public Relations

and the ECC Security and Custodial Staffs


A Special Thanks

Jill Foote-Hutton, former ECC Art Instructor

Jennifer Higerd, ECC Art Instructor

Adam Watkins, ECC Art Instructor

and

Bob Hirosky

Opening night…

  • September 10, 2010 10:50 pm

Just a few minutes before the door opens…..

and then the doors open wide…  photos by Ginny McNatt…

and we gave a short talk about our collaboration

BTW: great job AB, NB and GM!!

BP from UHS!!

(Note for my collaborators….yes, the clothing challenge was completed!)

Day 14/ Final Touches….

  • September 10, 2010 6:46 pm

the re-do….

and our statement and list of collaborators goes up….

finally a bit of a rest…..

Install Day 13/ Final Full day….

  • September 9, 2010 11:42 pm

Final day, final hours, final moments, FINALE

Jen borrows a jacket to warm up in the cold gallery as she proofs the statement and list of collaborators…

more behind the scenes action

Making the “beginning” of the Cascade….

more behind the scenes…..

a decision was made to show some of the actual and imaginary artist’s process in our piece.  Thanks BP for your ideas and for securing the sewing machines for us to use!!!!

Install Day 12/ Oversized…

  • September 8, 2010 10:33 pm

another busy day in the gallery…Working on the oversized shirt, pants and dress.

CC & GM, make this possible!!

The wall of pockets goes up.

The oversized hangers waiting to be hung up!

The suspended pods get filled with 100 jackets and more and more braids from the high school participants… bravo NM & AC!!

Fabric swatches are tied onto the other column…..mucho gracias NB!

Jen places the final dresses and skirts into the main structure.  photos by GB!

We need to keep the gallery floor space clear under our main structure.  So the loose braids are tied so they suspend about one inch off the floor.  They sway as one walks past.

The last thing I do be fore calling it a night is hang the remaining 5 oversized hangers.  It’s quiet in the gallery except the buzzing of the drill.

Install Day 11/ Hangers, Pockets n Sound Piece….

  • September 7, 2010 10:28 pm

full house today….

laying out the sewn big pockets and constructing relationship of color, shape, texture and just plain outright interesting forms…  bravo AM!

Assembling the six over sized hangers… the metal is cleaned, holes drilled and

there’s a big, big, big hanger ready for an adhesive…. Thanks ML!!

in process sound piece comes to life…. thanks NB

click on below for piece….

http://theescapist.bandcamp.com/track/clothing-mix-clip
more braiding and cutting…by MD and HM….
Starting to make space within the spaces and more shirts go up!

Install Day 10/ Laboring on Labor Day….

  • September 6, 2010 11:40 pm

Bending the tops for the hangers….

ML built a jig and the cold bent the forms…

wrestling the table and metal to speed up the process….

still more braiding… for attaching shirts and skirts and dresses….

cutting shirts…. and starting to construct with more shirts….

Install Day 9/ Wall of Pockets etc…

  • September 5, 2010 11:20 pm

Laying out ideas for the “wall of pockets”… using fabric swatches and then pockets from some of the clothing around the room.

Stack of large pockets ready to go home with a collaborator and be sewn…

(Thanks GM and AM for coming in on Labor Day weekend)

Back outside… stained more parts for potential hangers… if we want to go that way…

More braiding to match the earth tones….

got all the pants up……

…now to fill in with the shirts… did a few tests before leaving for the night…

Install Day 8/ Pants Everywhere/ Adding to the Main Structure

  • September 4, 2010 10:13 pm

Playing around on Saturday….trying to get the main structure set-up…

Trying to see how it looks for tying the bottoms of the sections together…

Before leaving I do a test with using clothes pins to hold parts of the sections together…Trying to create more volume, not to have so many linear parts…

Install Day 7/ Cutting Up…

  • September 3, 2010 11:11 pm

morning prep:  sharpening scissors and selecting pants (color groupings) for the afternoon pizza and art party.

(BTW: thanks JH & AW for the pizza, etc..)

Everyone arrives, braiding continues… we also bring the large wooden hangers into the gallery space and placed them around the room…

Cutting frenzie… snip, snip….  pants turn into art materials….

After our lunch we experiment with creating forms and density for our main structure…plus braiding goes on and on….

We discuss making pathways into the cascade… and is it still a cascade or more pod forms that intersect in some way???… …we’ll know more soon.  We also vote to donate the braids to someone who makes rag rugs (at the conclusion of the exhibit).  The afternoon ends with a few collaborators making themselves available for times on Sunday and maybe Monday….