Made With Love

About the Show

 "Made with Love" is a series of 500 unique garments handmade from slightly varying shades of blue, green, or grey cotton jersey. The success of this event hinges completely on the ingenuity of the audience; exchange evolves from collaboration:

• The public is invited to try on and investigate these garments.
• The nature of these garments is ambiguous and varied with random arm, neck, and leg holes.
• The pieces can be worn as shirts, pants, scarves, hats, skirts, etc., and should be personally interpreted by each participant.
• They are mysterious in their intended use and each person is free to choose which style and which way the garment is to be worn, completely left up to their discretion.
• The atmosphere this incites is one of playfulness, excitement, vanity, and willing vulnerability, as the testing of these garments requires a bit of humor and adventure. 
• These provocative social sculptures induce interpersonal collectiveness. Because each garment is different, the interpretation of each piece relies on a series of simple intuitive combinations and individual choices based on taste and personal representation.
• The process of trying on garments that can be worn several different ways creates an instantaneous intimate dialogue between friends and strangers. It is a question with many answers.
• It is, in effect, a living, breathing, moving, morphing installation contingent upon the innovation and personal expression of the audience."
• The familiarity of wearable objects instigates a higher level of intimacy with the piece and therefore more comfort in participating.
• This project elicits creative participation that exhibits individual creativity while simultaneously uniting all those involved. 

 

Coming Up:

Artist Talk / Workshop -- July 24, 1 - 5PM
A four-hour workshop focusing on art using textiles as a catalyst for social interaction. First hour of workshop will be lecture based with slides and an artist talk on “Made With Love” by artist Stacy Scibelli at the OTC Gallery. Last three hours will be devoted to discussing why fiber based materials are particularly suited for participatory art works and experimenting with different ideas surrounding the notion of social sculpture and how to successfully encourage your audience to interact with the work. We will also discuss how design, art, and craft all intermingle in this type of practice. There will be exercises in intuitive design – “action sewing” – in which we will react to different fabrics and learn how to collaborate with the fiber by allowing the material to dictate the aesthetics and purpose of the object. The objective of this workshop is to explore the potential for fiber based art to be more than aesthetic objects and to open up dialogue about the definitions of sculpture, craft, art, and design.

About the Artist -- Stacy Scibelli

Stacy Scibelli is a designer and artist currently living and working in New York City with a communal studio/gallery space in Brooklyn. She
is a recent recipient of a Franklin Furnace Grant, a project grant from Possible Futures in Atlanta GA, and a residency in Portland ME. She is committed to the practice and history of craft as it relates to contemporary art and design.

Scibelli utilizes materials common toconventional habit such as wool, knits, and leather. The conceptual relevancy of this work hinges on viewer interaction with each other through a provided vehicle object. Stacy makes soft machines that facilitate basic, seemingly banal, interactions that conjure overwhelming emotion in the participant. The apparatus is an instigator to a higher understanding of one another.

Fashion is the manifestation of art and life colliding. Clothing is a vehicle for individual expression that is understood through its materiality. To adorn the body is a universal human condition that allows for versatility, utility, culture, drama, and emotion – all at once. Scibelli is addressing an unspoken dialogue of power dynamics that manifest themselves in the distance we keep or don’t keep from each other and the choice to collaborate or take advantage of these handicaps.

**This performance/variable media art work was made possible, in part, by public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council. Major support of the Franklin Furnace Fund was provided in 2010-11 by the Lambent Foundation Fund of Tides Foundation and Jerome Foundation.