WyoFile's Studio Wyoming Review posted my review Friday of Georgia Rowswell's exhibit, "Crazy," at the Nicolaysen Art Museum in Casper.
Here's the opener:
The “Crazy” exhibit at The Nic sent me to my room to find out where my clothes come from.Dress shirts from the Dominican Republic. Pants from Cambodia. Sweaters from China. I have drawers filled with T-shirts: Made in Haiti; Fabrique au Vietnam; Hecho en Bangladesh. There are blue jeans from Mexico and sweatpants from Guatemala. I look at clothes labels when I shop. I hope one will read “Made in USA.” It’s a rare find in the 21st century. Our apparel industry went offshore decades ago and is not coming back.“Crazy – A Contemporary Quilt about Fashion’s Pressing Problems” opened at Casper’s Nicolaysen Art Museum in September and will be up through Dec. 27. It is one section of a solo exhibit, “Layer, Fold, Unfold,” that features Georgia Rowswell’s fabric art pieces made from thrift-store clothes. Also on display are her “Hot Yellowstone” series and several Wyoming landscapes in “found drawers and boxes.”
The exhibit asks that opening question: Where do your clothes come from? Instead of a stern lecture, Georgia displays the answer across a wall at the Nic. A good question, one that sparked the Cheyenne artist's interest in finding origins for the many clothing items she collects at thrift shops to make her fabric art. Clothes have labels and Georgia collected items from 36 countries for what some might call a tapestry but the artist calls an embroidery.
Read the rest of the story at WyoFile's Contemporary fiber art show tackles fashion's pressing problems. And then you can find out your clothing's origins.
Georgia's curiosity about the origins of her clothes mirrors a similar question asked by author Katherine Standefer. After surgeons implanted a defibrillator in her chest at 24, she wondered about the origins of the materials that go into making this life-saving device. Her book, Lightning Flowers: My Journey to Uncover the Cost of Saving a Life, explores the author's quest to find out where the titanium, cobalt and other crucial elements and metals are mined. It's a dirty business. She also visited another part of the supply chain: the steel-and-glass "clean rooms" at the L.A. plant that made her device.
I read the book and attended a writing workshop (sponsored by Jackson Hole Writers) conducted online by Katherine. I was curious about the same things Katherine was because I also have an Implantable Cardioverter Defibrillator in my chest. A 2013 heart attack damaged my heart and the ICD is there in case I experience an out of control atrial fibrillation (afib) that could stop my heart. I rarely think about it these days but Katherine's book piqued my curiosity and taught me a few things that I didn't know. Part of her book is set in Jackson, Wyo., which brings her story even closer to home.
Curiosity prompted creation of some magnificent artwork and an exciting nonfiction book that reads like a thriller. We all should have such curious minds.
2 comments:
Fascinating! One of the best things about my writing life is that my curiosity has grown over time. I know it can slow things down, but I'm a down-the-rabbit-hole kind of researcher, and wouldn't change it for the world.
Now I have to go look at my labels--never would have thought of that!
Down-the-rabbit-hole researcher means you get caught up the research and you find it hard to get back to the writing. That certainly is true of my new novel set in 1919. It wasn't yet the Roaring 20s so I assumed my characters must be still stuck in the Edwardian era and as boring and chaste as their forebears, assuming that our ancestors were as bland as they looked in the B&W photos. It's silly but writers, too, make assumptions.
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