Symbiosis: Fashion and Art, Downtown Gallery, Kent, OH
About: Professor Chanjuan Chen and I received a Catalyst Grant from the College of the Arts to create a collaborative project between Fashion and Art that integrated her research into sustainable design and my practice in art and ecology. We selected a group of undergraduate students to work with us to create a collection of garments and artworks to be displayed at the Downtown Gallery in Kent, OH. We paired Fashion students and Printmaking students into groups of 2; each group created a garment and an artwork. Chen and I also created a garment and artwork. Students worked alongside us and learned under the mentorship of our collaborative project.
The theme for the collection was hydrangeas, which are hyperaccumulator plants that remediate soil. Each collaborative group took this idea as a starting point for their collaboration. Chen and my garment and artwork were created out of non-fixed interchangeable parts that can be reconfigured into many different iterations, sizes, etc. In this way, our project embodied sustainability and ecology in both theme and method.
We additionally worked with undergraduate photography students and VCD students at Glyphix Studio to have a catalogue produced as a lasting record of the project.
Catalogue: Symbiosis
Postcard:
Overview of exhibition:
Professor Chen and my collaborative garment and artwork: