Glamouflage (Safer Space DJ Nook)

DJ Mary Mack in her natural habitat

This is the work I made for Perspectives II, a show with half of my cohort in OCAD University's IAMD (Interdisciplinary Masters in Art, Media, and Design) program, at Gallery West, in Toronto. The nook is made out of a fabric that I silkscreen printed by hand, including speaker cozies that I stitched together and blinged out with sequins and fringe. I also made pocket squares to give away at the opening reception, so the installation and party could live on in memory beyond its brief duration.

In my practice I've been experimenting with ways to join my practices of silkscreen printing and the distribution of signifying wearables with organizing dance parties and other means of facilitating social exchange and safe(r) space. I'm also considering how these activities can be documented and live on in memory, both public and private.

Some handsome gentlemen (and fellow graduate students): Jason Deary, Jonathan Lockleyer, and Faraz Anoushah Pour

My co-DJ for the opening party, super-talented and tasteful colleague Faraz

a friendly DJ (with a Zahne record!)

speaker cozy close-up

In other circumstances, this nook will also accommodate projections, such as this queer deer dazzle stop motion animation I made in March. Here is an example of how that looks:

Digicamo Couture

Well, not exactly couture, but I did finally realize my long-term dream of making full outfits from my patterns, in honor of an art show that I organized with half my cohort in OCAD University's IAMD (Interdisciplinary Masters in Art, Media, and Design) program, to celebrate and showcase a bit of what we've been working on this year. The show happened April 23-27 at Gallery West, in Toronto's Parkdale neighborhood. I was really happy and honored to be in such good company of my talented colleagues.

Here is the outfit. To make this dress, I traced an existing dress that I like, and sewed around the edges. I left the bottom unhemmed, but will probably clean it up. This dress also features a contrasting belt made from the pink digicamo, and the bandana is a piece of the fabric I silkscreen printed for my installation in the show. The piece I created for the show was another long-term dream, a silkscreen printed hyper-patterned DJ nook. See images in the next post.

Cabin Fever Danceparty

The Cabin Fever dance party, co-organized and hosted by Zoe Hayes, at her cabin-y home in Toronto, gave me an opportunity to put the snuggies into action, albeit in an already fairly comfortable and safe space-y context. We enlisted other collaborators to create elements of the party, such as Hazel Meyer, who created a chalkboard mural that was the photobooth backdrop, and of course Kaija, Zoe's housemate, a filmmaker, who set up the camera of the Photo Booth and helped in the documentation. Simone Roughouser DJed with me, bringing the heat!!

We decorated their home with quilt aesthetics, such as tissue paper triangles laid over a light box, I brought friendship bracelet-making fixings, which were very popular, and Zoe and I also met a few weeks in advance to make homemade pierogies. Other pocket foods and cozy drinks were in supply, as well as a barrel fire out back.

The snuggies were worn by a few, but they made good use of their attention-grabbing comfort - although honestly I don't think any of my friends who wore them could be categorized as the "shy guy" at the danceparty. The snuggies are ready for a larger scale project! Stay tuned for a final camouflage party in this space before they sadly have to move out this Summer.

Queering the Lodge Digicamo

This week I finally made use of the digital inkjet printers in OCAD's Fibres department to print patterns I developed a few weeks ago as continuous patterned silkscreen prints. The inkjet printing is an attempt to speed up production of test patters, so see what works and eventually amp up production to make whole lines of clothing and environments.

I created these continuous patterns from silkscreen prints on paper, that I in turn created from drawing digital deer and foliage on graph paper, scanning them in, and creating 4-layer disruptive camo patterns. I silkscreen printed them on paper in a variety of colour combinations to see what I (and others) liked best.

I then scanned in the silkscreen prints and tiled them together in Photoshop. OCAD offers a variety of fabrics to print onto, including bamboo twill and silk(!) I chose a cotton jersey, similar to the weight of the second snuggie I made for Erin Oh (not pictured).
Printing on fabric with the inkjet printer takes about a minute per inch, then you let it sit overnight, then you peel off the paper backing that allows it to feed through the printer, roll it up and steam it, wait another day, then you wash it and fix the pigment, finally drying and ironing the fabric. I'm really happy with how these patterns came out, they are far more successful at being a regular continuous pattern than anything I have made yet!

Safety Dance Snuggie

I made a snuggie! This is the first of a series of portable "safe spaces" for the shy guy at the danceparty. I silkscreen printed my RealMaple pattern onto red flannel, and sewed it up into a cozy blanket-with-arms. I may add a hood and other touches to make this more simultaneously discreet and superfly. Next steps are taking it to the dance floor!

Wheatpasting in Sheraden

This weekend, with crucial assistance from Shaun Slifer and Kevin Clancy, I put up some prints on the Murphy building in Sheraden. A post office, corner store and laundromat in front, the back side of the building that faces the busway is all boarded up.
The main prints in this piece are large, brightly-colored silkscreen prints of the herons I drew for Third Termite to letterpress print for Outpost journal. We also incorporated baby hawk patterns and some outtakes of the "We're All In This Together" worms that Josh MacPhee printed while he was in town in April.

This work is part of a public art project in the West End of Pittsburgh organized by Orvokki Halme of Future Tenant---who hosted a window show of Celebrate People's History posters back in November. Keep an eye out there for Your Seat at the Banquet, a food justice show that Kevin is co-organizing this Fall (you may remember him from his Portable Utopia project that I blogged here a few months ago---another amazing former teen!)
In Pittsburgh, more than most places, everything is interconnected.
Big thank yous to Shaun and Kevin for braving the blazing sun with me!
Shaun took the photos, for more see my Flickr

Oyster Mushroom Party!

Over the past year or so I've become increasingly fascinated with (read: obsessed) with finding, identifying, and harvesting mushrooms---especially edibles! Last week I officially joined the Western Pennsylvania Mushroom Club, of which several good friends who are way more advanced in their mushroom nerdiness are already members.

One of the first mushrooms I've been able to identify are oysters. They are pretty abundant in Spring and Fall in and around Pittsburgh, and tend to favor stumps; dead wood. This morning I was driving down Fifth Avenue on my way to Frick Park, when I spied a tree thoroughly TEEMING with mushrooms! I turned off and parked as soon as I could and power-walked back to that tree. Check it out!
So strong they are breaking the bark!
I wasn't really prepared to harvest anything, but I had emptied out my Big Red Bag and so filled it. I still left about 2/3 of the mushrooms on the tree, for the next observant passerby.

What do you do with 2 cubic feet of mushrooms? Well, I remembered reading in a cookbook recently about slicing up mushrooms, tossing them in olive oil and salt, and baking them in the oven, like fries. So that's what I did. They are FANTASTIC, I am looking forward to sharing them with my Mending Jam tonight.