The Fabric Workshop and Museum Announces Two Exhibitions:
Museum As… and Shopworks, Now on View until September 10, 2023
Philadelphia, PA, May 15, 2023 — The Fabric Workshop and Museum (FWM) is pleased to announce two new exhibitions in its ground floor gallery, Museum As… and Shopworks. Museum As… explores FWM’s function as a museum that encourages artists, through collaborations with FWM, to expand their artistic practice with new techniques and ways of working. Shopworks explores how collaborations between the FWM Studio and artists have resulted in a robust decades-long program of artist multiples. Both exhibitions will be on view until September 10, 2023.
Museum As… serves as the third and final installment in a trilogy of exhibitions that began in September 2020, all designed to interrogate The Fabric Workshop and Museum’s name. While the first two exhibitions in the series—Fabric As… and Workshop As…—explored how material and process have shaped the outcome of past residencies, Museum As… focuses on FWM’s role as a museum, a word that wasn’t added to the institution’s name until 1996, nearly 20 years after its founding. The works on view—including Tommy Joseph’s wearable men’s suit made with Tlingit totemic motifs and Carrie Mae Weems’ Adam and Eve-inspired embroidered folding screen—demonstrate FWM’s distinct approach, one based on cultivating situations for artistic collaboration and experimentation while also collecting and preserving contemporary art for future generations.
This exhibition features work by six of over 125 Artists-in-Residence with whom FWM have collaborated since its founding. These collaborations typify and manifest FWM’s deep and experimental relationships with artists. As seen in the exhibition, Sam Gilliam collaborated with the museum during his 1977 residency—FWM’s founding year—to incorporate silkscreens into his artistic process of playing with color, materials and surface. That same year, Jody Pinto, known for sculptural landscape interventions, expanded her practice with the use of printed cloth with Hair Shirt. Displayed on a hanger like a garment ready to be worn, the work was created with pigment on pig skin to depict a fleshy human torso with black body hair emanating from its sides and chest. It is displayed in this exhibition alongside two large drawings by Pinto that map out early plans for its production. Other collaborations include two literary-inspired works by Tim Rollins and K.O.S. (first in residence in 1989), and a display of two encased gentleman’s suits alongside a related photographic work by Gabriel Martinez (in residence in 1998).
FWM’s pursuit of unexpected conversations about ideas, materials, and the artistic process has resulted in a rethinking of what museums can be. As evidenced in its residency and programming history, museums can also be sites, ateliers and record-keepers of collaboration. Museum As… draws from FWM’s ever-growing collection, which consists of over 4,000 objects, including finished works and materials that document their production as well as the results.
Museum As… is organized by DJ Hellerman, Chief Curator & Director of Curatorial Affairs.
Shopworks celebrates FWM’s history of collaborations that have resulted in the production and release of artist multiples. On view (and for sale) are limited edition artworks and objects that suggest a wide range of function, material playfulness, and potential for personal engagement that artists have brought to this program over the decades.
Among the conceptual objects on display, many invite interaction: Ecke Bonk’s Chess Jacket (Checkett) (1987–1991) can be worn or draped over a surface to support gameplay with chess pieces that include a knight based on a model by Marcel Duchamp; Kiki Smith’s reversible doll based on the poem Owl and Pussycat can be transformed by flipping its skirt; Lenka Clayton’s 2017 Braille translation describing Constantin Brancusi’s Sculpture for the Blind can be read with physical touch; and Rose B. Simpson’s letterpress-printed Guidance Cards (2022) come with instructions for contemplation and interpretation of the artist’s hand-drawn iconography.
Other artist editions suggest a more straightforward function. Mary Heilmann’s Serape (Square Lamp) (1995) and a Japanese paper lamp by Joan Jonas (2014) are intended to illuminate. While some editions, like Louise Bourgeois’ poem dyed on china silk (1992) and William Wegman’s playful puppies in the form of a c-print (2002) are displayed as traditional artworks, other works, like Jonathan Lyndon Chase’s Bending $ag Boxers (2021), Sarah Sze’s silk habotai scarves featuring sublime imagery (2013), and Richard Tuttle’s hand-sewn summer kimono (2015), suggest art that was built for the body.
FWM has been able to support these commercial projects by working deeply with artists to translate their ideas into meaningful editions that are more imaginative than typical museum shop inventory. During these collaborations, FWM fully supports the development and production of these editions, and the resulting inventory is shared between the artists and the Museum Shop. The editions allocated to FWM are made available for purchase in-store and online to help raise essential funds and support future FWM projects. In 2020, with the generous support of The Pew Center for Arts & Heritage, FWM formalized this program as Shopworks
Shopworks is organized by Olivia Dwyer, Shopworks Coordinator.
Related Events
Four-Day Master Class
Extraordinary: Yukata Summer Kimono Workshop with Tsuyo Onodera and Maki Aizawa
Saturday and Sunday, August 5, 6, 12, and 13, 2023
10:00 am–5:00 pm
This summer FWM is offering a rare opportunity to create your own yukata, a type of summer kimono, with guidance from a master. Learn the art directly from the master kimono maker who expertly hand sewed Richard Tuttle’s edition, “Extraordinary”, produced during his 2015 residency. For the first time in Philadelphia, join Master Kimono maker Tsuyo Onodera from Sendai, Japan and her daughter Maki Aizawa, a San Francisco-based artist and cultural producer as they guide us through a step-by-step journey into the art of Japanese kimono sewing traditions—a cultural legacy Tsuyo Onodera has been dedicated to her entire life.
In this four-day workshop—taking place over two consecutive weekends on August 5–6 and August 12–13, 2023—learn how to sew your own yukata specific to your proportions and decorate it with screenprinting techniques. Each participant will receive a roll of tanmono fabric—specific to the yukata sewing process with its particular weight and dimensions—and learn how to mark the kimono pattern directly onto these rolls in an age-old process in which every single piece of the material is utilized. Tsuyo Onodera and Maki Aizawa are passionate about keeping these authentic traditions alive and we’re excited to share their passion with you.
Participants only need to bring their own sewing machine to the workshop; all other materials will be provided.
$850.00 Public | $750.00 FWM Members
Talk + Light Bites
Unpacking Richard Tuttle: Talk with FWM Director of Studio Nami Yamamoto
Wednesday, August 9, 2023
12:00–1:00 pm
Join us for this lunch time talk with FWM Director of Studio Operations, Nami Yamamoto, as she unpacks the 2015 residency of Richard Tuttle. Prior to his residency during a visit to Japan, Tuttle saw many people wearing identical kimonos at a local summer festival which inspired him to produce Extraordinary—an edition of kimonos available for sale in the FWM Shop.
Yamamoto will tell personal stories and share insights into the chusen dye process used to create the graphic motif. With examples of paper stencils, sketches, and other ephemera from Richard Tuttle’s residency at-hand, hear how the summer kimonos were ultimately hand sewn by Master Kimono Maker Tsuyo Onodera and her team at the Sendai Kimono Making/Training School.
Light Japanese refreshments will be served.
$15 Public | $10 FWM members
Master Class
Nuitsugi Mending Workshop with Maki Aizawa
Thursday, August 10, 2023
6:00–8:00 pm
Join this workshop to learn the art of nuitsugi, Japanese mending techniques led by Maki Aizawa, a San Francisco-based artist and cultural producer. Explore various mending techniques in the kimono-making process that are both functional and practical, yet delicate enough for such fabrics as silk, fine thin cotton, and linen.
“Nui” means to sew, and “tsugi” means to connect. Let’s create something beautiful together! All levels are welcome. Participants should bring an item of clothing or a cotton tote bag to practice these techniques. Maki will provide Japanese patching fabric. Everyone will leave with a patched item, plus their very own mending needle.
$85 Public | $75 FWM members
Lecture + Trunk Show
Preserving Tradition
Friday, August 11, 2023
6:00–7:30 pm
Learn about the art of traditional kimono making and Maki Aizawa’s personal journey and involvement with the Sendai Kimono Making/Training School in Japan—a school founded and run by her mother that inspired her career. Aizawa continues to work with licensed kimono makers, helping to preserve this artistic tradition and sharing her work with an international audience. Afterwards, stay for a reception to meet the artist and the opportunity to purchase hand-sewn garments from her own brand, Kamiko, that works with licensed kimono makers in Japan to create contemporary designs for everyday life.
$10 Public | Free for FWM members
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