Chashama 266 Gallery presents market, an interactive installation by Audra Wolowiec. Wolowiec invites individuals to participate in an intimate micro-economy by bringing garments to be altered through the process of exchange. Located in the Garment District of New York City, this site-specific project stems from a desire to connect with people and draw attention to the labor embedded in the garments we wear.

Acting as a “mercer” or “textile trader,” the artist will provide a service that involves cutting out corresponding swatches from each item of clothing, transferring and sewing them in place of the other. By creating visible traces, new life is given to each garment. Through this process of direct relations, a market is created based not on commerce but on tactile interaction.

To participate, please visit the space (with a friend or alone) and remember to bring an item of clothing. Participants will kindly be asked to leave their garments on display throughout the duration of the project and can retrieve them when the show closes on September 7th. The artist will be available for exchange daily from 11am-6pm.

Audra Wolowiec is a multidisciplinary artist based in Brooklyn, New York. Her work is often collaborative in nature, mining themes of communication, voice, and ephemeral moments of the everyday. In recreating phenomena and trace effects, she explores the idea of a fading connection to create an elusive but shared experience. She received an MFA in Sculpture from the Rhode Island School of Design in 2007 and BFA in Textiles from the University of Michigan in 2002. Her work has been shown at Art in General (New York), Pocket Utopia (Brooklyn), and the Museum of New Art (Detroit).