FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
Regen Projects
633 North Almont Drive
Los Angeles, CA 90069
t: 310 276 5424 f: 310 276 7430
Andrea Zittel
A-Z Advanced Technologies:
The A-Z Regenerating Field & Fiber Form Uniforms
Location: Regen Projects
Dates: December 3, 2002 – January 18, 2003
Hours: Tuesday - Saturday 11:00 am - 5:00 pm
A-Z ADVANCED TECHNOLOGIES: THE REGENERATING FIELD
Regen Projects is pleased to present an exhibition by Andrea Zittel. This show will feature a selection of Paper Pulp Panels which were made in the A-Z Regenerating Field in Joshua Tree, California, and a series of new A-Z Fiber Form garments.
A-Z West, located in the California High Desert is A-Z’s new testing ground for designs for living - it is where we are working to develop new ways to both produce and present art.
This last year the primary focus at A-Z West has been on "production" and how to develop new materials and new kinds of fabrication techniques. After working outdoors in the 110-degree temperatures, and contending with seemingly infinite budget problems, I believed that there must be a way to make interesting and significant art for less money, and less physical toll. This led to the search for a new technology: A-Z Advanced Technologies. Looking for the plentiful and least costly resource available, I decided to find a way to use my paper waste as a building material. Stacks of old newspapers, magazines, mail order catalogs, and office debris were almost overwhelming in their volume, and were ordinarily something that I had to haul to the local dump. To turn paper into a moldable material it is first shredded and pulped. Then it is packed into a series of plastic molds, which slide into a grid of steel frames so that the pulp can dry outdoors in the hot sun. The installation of the Regenerating Field consists of a grid of 25 trays that spills down the hill in front of the A-Z West Homestead. The work references both the aesthetics of earthwork installations (like the lightning fields by Walter de Maria) and the industrialized format of modern day agriculture.
Dried paper pulp is lightweight, incredibly strong, and it can be molded into shapes that look like fiberglass, concrete or even travertine stone. And of course the dry moistureless desert, where A-Z West is sited, is perhaps the most perfect place for this type of new technology. Although eventually I plan to use my process to build furniture and larger structures, the initial attempt has been to create an attractive, durable wall panel. Something that could camouflage bad walls and add softness and texture to a room. A little like the phenomena of wood paneling of the 60s and 70s, but without all of the connotations of that era.
A-Z ADVANCED TECHNOLOGIES: FIBER FORM UNIFORMS
Since 1991 the technical and conceptual evolution of the A-Z Uniforms Series has been gravitating toward an increasingly direct way of making my own garments. After finally reducing the tools of production to simply crocheting the strands of yarn directly off of my fingers, I began to consider the material that I was using. What if I could trace the strand of yarn back to its original form as fiber? Now I am finally beginning to make the most direct form of clothing possible by hand; "felting" wool directly into the shape of a garment, and thereby inventing my own ways to make shirts and dresses. Because the clothing is made as one piece there are no seams involved, and when it is finished I use a safety pin to connect the two sides so that it will stay on! I have encapsulated this body of work under the heading "A-Z Advanced Technologies" which plays off of the way that something can be both incredibly primitive and quite sophisticated at the same time.
For further information please contact Shaun Caley Regen or Lisa Overduin at the gallery at (310) 276-5424.
Regen Projects
633 North Almont Drive
Los Angeles, CA 90069
t: 310 276 5424 f: 310 276 7430
Andrea Zittel
A-Z Advanced Technologies:
The A-Z Regenerating Field & Fiber Form Uniforms
Location: Regen Projects
Dates: December 3, 2002 – January 18, 2003
Hours: Tuesday - Saturday 11:00 am - 5:00 pm
A-Z ADVANCED TECHNOLOGIES: THE REGENERATING FIELD
Regen Projects is pleased to present an exhibition by Andrea Zittel. This show will feature a selection of Paper Pulp Panels which were made in the A-Z Regenerating Field in Joshua Tree, California, and a series of new A-Z Fiber Form garments.
A-Z West, located in the California High Desert is A-Z’s new testing ground for designs for living - it is where we are working to develop new ways to both produce and present art.
This last year the primary focus at A-Z West has been on "production" and how to develop new materials and new kinds of fabrication techniques. After working outdoors in the 110-degree temperatures, and contending with seemingly infinite budget problems, I believed that there must be a way to make interesting and significant art for less money, and less physical toll. This led to the search for a new technology: A-Z Advanced Technologies. Looking for the plentiful and least costly resource available, I decided to find a way to use my paper waste as a building material. Stacks of old newspapers, magazines, mail order catalogs, and office debris were almost overwhelming in their volume, and were ordinarily something that I had to haul to the local dump. To turn paper into a moldable material it is first shredded and pulped. Then it is packed into a series of plastic molds, which slide into a grid of steel frames so that the pulp can dry outdoors in the hot sun. The installation of the Regenerating Field consists of a grid of 25 trays that spills down the hill in front of the A-Z West Homestead. The work references both the aesthetics of earthwork installations (like the lightning fields by Walter de Maria) and the industrialized format of modern day agriculture.
Dried paper pulp is lightweight, incredibly strong, and it can be molded into shapes that look like fiberglass, concrete or even travertine stone. And of course the dry moistureless desert, where A-Z West is sited, is perhaps the most perfect place for this type of new technology. Although eventually I plan to use my process to build furniture and larger structures, the initial attempt has been to create an attractive, durable wall panel. Something that could camouflage bad walls and add softness and texture to a room. A little like the phenomena of wood paneling of the 60s and 70s, but without all of the connotations of that era.
A-Z ADVANCED TECHNOLOGIES: FIBER FORM UNIFORMS
Since 1991 the technical and conceptual evolution of the A-Z Uniforms Series has been gravitating toward an increasingly direct way of making my own garments. After finally reducing the tools of production to simply crocheting the strands of yarn directly off of my fingers, I began to consider the material that I was using. What if I could trace the strand of yarn back to its original form as fiber? Now I am finally beginning to make the most direct form of clothing possible by hand; "felting" wool directly into the shape of a garment, and thereby inventing my own ways to make shirts and dresses. Because the clothing is made as one piece there are no seams involved, and when it is finished I use a safety pin to connect the two sides so that it will stay on! I have encapsulated this body of work under the heading "A-Z Advanced Technologies" which plays off of the way that something can be both incredibly primitive and quite sophisticated at the same time.
For further information please contact Shaun Caley Regen or Lisa Overduin at the gallery at (310) 276-5424.