“Am I Dressed Appropriately?”:
Tufts University Art Gallery Launches National Tour of the Exhibition
Pattern Language: Clothing as Communicator
that Explores the Meanings of Clothing
September 8–November 13, 2005 • Opening Reception: Thursday, September 8, 5:30–8:30 p.m.
MEDFORD, MA – The first exhibition to explore the creative intersection of art, fashion, and human needs and desires opens September 8, 2005 at the Tufts University Art Gallery. Pattern Language: Clothing as Communicator, organized by guest curator Judith Hoos Fox, will tour nationally through the spring of 2007. The exhibition includes 43 works by established and emerging artists from Germany, Italy, Spain, Honduras, Japan, England, Greece, Egypt, and the United States. The works in Pattern Language, which are either unique or editioned rather than mass-produced, include historical examples, contemporary objects, and new proposals, as well as interactive and wearable editions.
Pattern Language: Clothing as Communicator investigates clothing as a means to express and fulfill primary human needs- needs of the mind, body, and soul. The works explore the interaction of clothing, fabric, and the body as a form of communication and as a way of suggesting new relationships between individuals and the coverings that protect, occlude, and redefine our bodies. The exhibition addresses a range of important themes: our need for shelter, social connections, protection, and entertainment, our desire for self-expression, and our need to articulate our identity.
Pattern Language represents guest curator Fox’s ongoing interest in art as a signpost for and critique of culture. She explains: “It is exciting to make connections between fashion and art and between art and design across generations of artists; to bring together the work of ethnically and culturally diverse artists; and to show work that involves cutting-edge technologies as well as couture tailoring.”
The exhibition will travel to the Indianapolis Museum of Art, the Southeastern Center for Contemporary Art, the Krannert Art Museum at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, the University Art Museum at the University of California Santa Barbara, and the Frederick R. Weisman Art Museum at the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis.
A DVD compilation of works in the exhibition being worn or performed and a fully-illustrated 56-page catalogue with essays by Judith Hoos Fox, Robin Givhan, and Jeff Weinstein accompany the exhibition.
"Petal Pant" by Michelle Fornabai, unfolding choreography, 2004 (below).
"possible objects | impossible figure," 2005
"possible objects | impossible figure" (2005) shows the construction choreography of unfolding the "Petal Pant" (2004) from garment to shelter—the "Petal Pant" may exist as two possible objects (a pair of pants, a tent), yet it constructs an impossible figure (the body performing the act would be doubled and turned inside out). The video accompanied the "Petal Pant" on exhibition and screened in 2010 for "No Fixed Points in Space," sponsored by the Merce Cunningham Dance Foundation.
website: "Pattern Language: Clothing as Communicator" at Tufts University Art Gallery
catalog: Judith Hoos Fox, Pattern Language: Clothing as Communicator on Amazon
review: Sarah Tomlinson, "Fashion Forward" in The Boston Globe