FEATURING
PROGRAM CALENDAR
Adam Arnold Michael Cepress Anna Cohen for Imperial Stock Ranch Michelle Lesniak Carole McClellan Pendleton Woolen Mills Liza Rietz Emily Spivack Anna Telcs Otto von Busch
STYLE #AS0463: A PERFORMANCE BY ALEXA STARK AND ANGELI Thursday May 8, 2014, 6pm
SYMPOSIUM | PROTOTYPING FASHION’S FUTURES
EVENT | DESIGN AND WEARABLE TECHNOLOGY Friday May 9, 2014, 7pm
University of Oregon, White Stag Building 70 NW Couch Street
SAFEHOUSE ARTISTS–IN–RESIDENCE
ARTIST TALK AND WORKSHOP | EMILY SPIVACK: SENTIMENTAL VALUE Saturday May 10, 1pm
CURATORIAL WALKTHROUGH | FASHIONING CASCADIA Saturday May 10, 2014, 11am
Adrienne Antonson Drew Cameron Cassie Ridgway Stephanie Syjuco
OPEN SEASON: THE MERCURY’S 10th ANNUAL FASHION SHOW EVENTS Monday May 12–Wednesday May 14, 6pm
COMMUNITY SHOWCASE
VINTAGE FASHION RUNWAY SHOW Friday May 30, 7pm
Portland Garment Factory
ARTIST TALK | STEPHANIE SYJUCO Thursday June 13, 6:30pm
STOREFRONT ARTISTS–IN–RESIDENCE
ARTIST TALK | CASSIE RIGWAY AND MAKE– IT–GOOD Thursday July 17, 6:30pm
Kyla Mucci Alexa Stark
ARTIST TALK | ADRIENNE ANTONSON Thursday July 31, 6:30pm
Presenting Sponsor:
ARTIST TALK | DREW CAMERON Thursday August 14, 6:30pm Media Sponsor:
A day-long series of programs and events to open up themes relating to sustainability, ingenuity, and entrepreneurship explored in Fashioning Cascadia Register for this event at prototypingfashionsfutures.eventbrite.com
WORKSHOPS WORKSHOP | OTTO VON BUSCH: FASHION SAFEHOUSE Monday June 2–Thursday June 5, 10am–5pm WORKSHOP | STEPHANIE SYJUCO: DAZZLE CAMOUFLAGE Friday June 20–Saturday June 21, 10am–5pm WORKSHOP | ADRIENNE ANTONSON: FELTING Friday August 8 – Saturday August 9, 10am–5pm WORKSHOP | DREW CAMERON: PULP PRINTING Friday August 22–Saturday August 23, 10am–5pm
For information on programming, events, workshops, and artist residencies, visit: museumofcontemporarycraft.org/fashioningcascadia
image: Liza Rietz, Cresent Dress, 2013 photo: Christine Taylor
Follow us on facebook and twitter @craftmuseum #fashioningcascadia
Saturday May 31, 9am–5pm
724 nw Davis Street, Portland, Oregon 503 223 2654
MuseumofContemporaryCraft.org Front Image: Michael Cepress, Prism Halter and Laurel Canyon Wrap Skirt, from the American Dreaming Collection, 2013 Jewelry: Emily Bixler of Boet, available in the Gallery Store Photo: Christine Taylor
FASHIONING CASCADIA: The Social Life of the Garment Curated by Sarah Margolis–Pineo, Associate Curator Something I have come to realize about Portland is that this city is decidedly un–fashionable. Not to say that we don’t have style — I feel that few would dispute the fact we are committed to styling hard and with particular zeal;; rather, as a region distanced from the urgency of major metropolitan hubs, living in this area affords the breathing room to slow down and exercise a way of life built on considered intention opposed to the momentary gratification of following a fleeting trend.
last a lifetime and into the next generation. It means repairing and refashioning clothing as things wear and style evolves. And, it means being aware of regional fiber systems that allow local economy and ecology to thrive.
The work on view in Fashioning Cascadia: The Social Life of the Garment is contentedly un-fashionable. Focused on Portland and Seattle, this exhibition explores the material, cultural, and social influences woven into the region’s most Fashion connotes a perpetual forward motion — a global cultural inspired sartorial craft by peering behind-the-scenes into zeitgeist expressed through the the designer’s studio. Further, material choices of consumers, which can be driven by all manner it invites you examine your own of personal and symbolic desires. relationship to dress, encouraging In the Pacific Northwest, we have you to consider the ways you wear, consume, and reflect on the freedom to redefine what clothing day-to-day. fashion is on a regional scale — detaching it from luxury and trend — to place value in products For many, this un–fashionable approach is not a viable reality. that are meaningful and sustain us as human beings. In this sense, Amidst our current industrial un–fashionable means designing and economic climate, the appeal — and some may say garments that are made to
necessity — of fast fashion’s lower price point and trendier product is undeniable. Fashioning Cascadia does not presume to make a definitive statement about the current or future state of the apparel industry. Instead, it seeks to raise questions by highlighting the work of artisans who are creating clothing for their immediate neighborhood, literally fashioning Cascadia through small-scale, customer– driven production systems that give material form to garments that are more than objects to own — they are meaningful heirlooms to treasure. It is by taking a closer look at the craft of clothing that Fashioning Cascadia seeks to reconnect us with our own sense of fashion, compelling us to consider the meaning that evolves from what we wear and how we wear it everyday.
the tactile experience of dress. It is in the seams of a garment that one locates the principles of craft and design, but it is through the daily experience of wearing clothing that we are able to reimagine perceptions, forge new systems of meaning, and create new visions that will propel fashion forward. A garment is both an expression of an ideology as well as a tangible piece that you can hold and wear, and it is the intent of Fashioning Cascadia to be an inspiring exhibition and a provocative call-to-action. F
Fashioning Cascadia presents clothing in a context that unpacks the social, cultural, and political life of a particular time and place, all the while remaining tethered to ABOVE: Thesis Suit rendering by Adam Arnold RIGHT: Safehouse rendering by Otto von Busch
FASHION SAFEHOUSE
ARTISTS-IN-RESIDENCE:
OTTO VON BUSCH
STEPHANIE SYJUCO, June 10–21
Fashion Safehouse, an ongoing project by Swedish designer and critic Otto von Busch, is installed in the upper gallery of Museum of Contemporary Craft. Throughout the summer, Artists-in-Residence will occupy the Safehouse, using it as a site to hack fashion systems through projects that examine individual behavior as a mechanism of social change.
The establishment of safe spaces is the foundation of a pro-active resistance: a safe place to start building alternatives to the dominant logic and regime of violence. The safehouse is a temporary base with one’s back covered, a platform for discussion, a boot camp for training and a node in a network of wider social mobilization. A Fashion Safehouse is not a place beyond fashion, but a place where it is collectively and collaboratively disarmed and displaced with a sincere attention to the human capabilities and values of the participants. It is a place from where to build an own stance: a resistance. –Otto von Busch
Using a dissonant array of printed and patterned textiles, San Francisco-based artist Stephanie Syjuco presents Dazzle Camouflage, a limited edition line of garments that speak to ideas of modern day camouflage, re-envisioned “ethnic” prints, and surveillance technology. CASSIE RIDGWAY, July 15–26 Portland’s own Cassie Ridgway, designer and owner of Mag-Big and writer for MOD, the Portland Mercury fashion blog, presents In the Working Woman’s Uniform, a project that will produce three original garments that capture the function, purpose, and impact of uniforms for today’s working woman. ADRIENNE ANTONSON, July 29–August 9 Brooklyn-based artist/designer, and founder of the clothing label STATE, Adrienne Antonson will present Fully Clothed, an on-going project that makes use of entirely salvaged garments and textiles to create a capable wardrobe, dressing herself from head–to–toe. DREW CAMERON, August 12–23 San Francisco artist Drew Cameron is co-founder of Combat Paper Project, a national program that works directly with communities affected by combat to transform military uniforms into sheets of handmade paper.