THE EVENT OF A THREAD

I first wrote about an Ann Hamilton installation, Indigo Blue, over two years ago (see my 2010 post here).  When I heard about her installation, The Event of a Thread, currently on view at the Park Avenue Armory, I knew it would be a must-see.

Consisting of wooden swings attached to a network of pulleys which manipulate a massive sheet of fabric in the middle of the room, the visual did not disappoint.  When participants swing, the pulleys move the textile, creating an exhilarating rippling effect (seen in my video, above).

The Event of  Thread emphasizes "individual encounters" and "congregational gatherings" focusing on the individual viewer/participant and the group.  The installation also incorporates readings and sound, for the ultimate multi-sensory experience.

The installation is only on view through January 6, so I highly recommend that you check it out this weekend if you are in the NYC area.

[Top photo by Chelsea Temkin; video and lower photo by me.]

SERGE DE NIMES

Denim is one of the most versatile textiles in production. Originally manufactured for the U.S. in Nîmes, France, it was called serge de Nîmes, which has been shortened into the colloquial term denim. As far as fashion is concerned, denim is always in style, and the average American owns 7 pairs of jeans.

Although the use of denim is widespread in the fashion industry, it was originally intended as a textile for laborers' garments. One of my favorite artworks addresses the issue of worker's clothing and its associations with this country's complicated industrial history.

Artist Ann Hamilton created this mound of denim for an installation in 1991, and it was shown again in 2007 at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. It consists of 18,000 pieces of used blue work clothes on a pallet and a seated participant actively erasing text from a book.

Hamilton's goal with this work, called Indigo Blue, was to encourage the rewriting of American history to include the importance of laborers in our country's industry. It spotlights the millions of working class citizens who made our country what it is today but have rarely been featured in accounts of U.S. history.

You can find some videos of Hamilton discussing Indigo Blue here.

For my Indigo Blue look, I wore a Marcel Dachet for Bergdorf Goodman denim dress and Christian Siriano for Payless shoes.

I plan on wearing this dress often--it's like a blank slate for colorful accessories. For its debut, however, I decided to keep it simple with these tonal pumps.

[Indigo Blue images from sfmoma.org.]