The following pages are composed of tones, colors, and values, which result in imagery. From the imagery’s lines, edges, and gradations, we see pants, four pocket jeans, jackets, boots (low and high), bags (stitched out of old paintings), belts. As well as backgrounds, surfaces, tools, flecks of dirt, hair, instances, and moments. These components are an index of process. In 2007 I began a website titled needlefeed. At the beginning it was meant to be a place to pair text with what I was designing and building (clothing and accessories). In the end it was an archive of ideas and processes. It housed thoughts and problems, results and solutions. Needlefeed was something that proposed sewing as a conceptual process for understanding how materials can, should, should not, and may, connect together. The act of cutting a sheet of material only to stitch it back together with yarn was an obsession for me. It revealed how the definition of one material can change based on its use. Process exposed the difference between cotton twill and denim jeans. This process became the route to products. As my skills advanced I learned about the reasons behind material choices and became focused on the activity of creating aesthetics. How something so thin, flat, and without dimension could be reshaped into volume only to become flat again when not in use bewildered me. Was process lost to finalized ideas? While some people became engrossed with the materials I chose, or the lines I stitched, I became engrossed with the ability for these fabrics to live in two completely different ways: one that is defined by the absence of dimensional quality, and one that is defined by the user who provides context for the flatness to bend towards. When the user activates the transformation between flatness and volume utility comes forward to display the character of process. From that, I learned making these items from beginning to end was not enough as their intrigue came from wear. This process of design to activation grew into an aesthetic for me. The index now derived from wear and use. As these items were built, a body of work came together. Although I consider each of these items to be completely unique, they can certainly be viewed as a single object or project. This condensing of the items together is perhaps a result of continually focusing closer and closer to the details to understand clothing design. Now I hope to take steps back to see the items as complete surfaces: complete drawings with no section of the image outside of my periphery, displaying the details and nuances as the seam that binds moments of process into a whole.
contents ... boots for Berlin, IMG_1307/1331 Levine’s black denim jeans, IMG_1515/1519 14oz. ACG denim jeans, IMG_1427/1478 Kaihara black/indigo jacket, IMG_1649/1666 16oz. oiled canvas jacket, IMG_0382/1682 military surplus poncho turned jacket, IMG_1720/1732 Melton wool & oiled denim pants, IMG_1558/1586 boots for Elston Ave., IMG_1345/1357 coiled belts, IMG_1745 painting bag - acrylic on canvas alley scene, IMG_1279/1396 painting bag - acrylic on canvas garage scene, IMG_1288/1296 ... contact
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Anthony Koerner tonykoerner@gmail.com ... www.needlefeed.com www.oratoryorphanage.org ... additional information available upon request