Thursday, September 28, 2023
5-7pm
Free and open to the public
Visiting artist and program collaborator Hadley Clark will give an evening presentation on her studio practice.
Hadley Clark gives presence to absence; gives new purpose to old discards; and gives form to thought. With an education in Painting (BFA, University of Kansas, 2001) as well as in Garment Design and Construction (BFA in Fashion Design with Honors, The New School | Parsons Paris, 2010), Clark’s work exists in the middle distance between art and fashion. Eschewing some of the commercial strictures of the fashion industry—seasonal collections, exported labor, textile waste—Clark’s methods more closely resemble those of an artist. Working patiently, often alone, Clark designs and constructs her garments according to deadlines set by the work itself. Part painter, part fashion designer, and part sculptor, Clark’s garments have employed materials as varied as silk, cotton, wool, soiled natural fibers, beeswax, salt, hair, and medical gauze. This material awareness, and a resulting interest in empowering individuals to fix and tailor garments as opposed to discarding them, led Clark to found her own sewing school in 2017, which she operates out of her studio.
