Make Something: A Participatory Artist Demonstration with Brece Honeycutt & Donna Huanca

Artists:Scott Andresen, Andrea Dezsö, Donna Huanca, Brece Honeycutt, Yoko Inoue, Nava Lubelski, Darrel Morris, and Shinique Smith

Curated byJeanne Gerrity and Melissa Levin

ISE Cultural Foundation is pleased to present Global Fabrics, Common Threads,a group exhibition co-curated by Jeanne Gerrity and Melissa Levin, and featuring work by Scott Andresen, Andrea Dezsö, Donna Huanca, Brece Honeycutt, Yoko Inoue, Nava Lubelski, Darrel Morris, and Shinique Smith.

The artists in this exhibition use clothing and fabric, as well as techniques such as embroidery and spinning, to explore the dichotomies of use and reuse, doing and undoing, importing and exporting, the global economy and personal politics. Through sewing, gluing, bundling, quilting, knitting, spinning, and tearing out, the eight artists choose enduring craftsmanship over new media technologies in their art-making practice. The works in Global Fabrics, Common Threadsask viewers to consider the lifecycle of basic materials – from needle and thread to image; and from thread to fabric to clothing and back again. By transforming these materials into works of art, the artists in this showquestion, sometimes deliberately and other times incidentally, commodity culture and/or acceptance of the status quo. Likewise, by appropriating traditional techniques they are able to tackle issues of excess production, global trade, eminent domain, gender stereotypes, and cultural differences. The works in the exhibition weave together traditional materials with complex ideas, exposing the subtle power of seemingly familiar household objects and materials. The artists exploit and transcend technical proficiency in their respective crafts, shifting the focus of their work to larger concerns about society, politics, and personal relationships in this contemporary globalized world.