Tobey Parker
Parsons School of Design
Space/ Materiality: Community
On the 8th floor of 17th W 17th St lies the exhibition “Sedimentations”. With the tagline as “Assemblage as Social Repair” it is certain many of the pieces within the exhibition floor would consist of an accumulation of found objects which when grouped together form a piece of art. “Sedimentations” showcases the work of many artists, but one which caught my eye was Mierle Laderman Ukeles. Her vibrant jumpsuits brought me closer to the pieces displayed. The pieces are all photographs which showcase her interacting with members of New York City’s Department of Sanitation. Overlooked by many, the sanitation workers of our city work continually. The amount of physical labor which goes into this job is massive, while the workers still remain invisible. Through the night, and early in the morning sanitation workers do the job that no one wants to do, and through her work Ukeles sheds a far overdue light on these workers.
This was not the first experience that Ukeles had with this type of art. During her performance at the Wadsworth Atheneum she mopped the steps and floors of the institution in order to demonstrate the work that women have been doing forever. While work can be considered an assemblage of exchanges with sanitation workers, the other pieces in the show are physical assemblages. For example, Jean Shin’s fascinating Spring Collection which sheds light on the amount of waste that the fashion industry creates. Each piece is numbered as a different look, and through the movement of the form evoke the idea of transference between people and countries. The shapes which the pieces are in appear similarly to the shape of a land mass from far above, and the negative space within could be reminiscent of the route which garments and recyclables take in their lifetime.
The pieces are also bounded up similarly to recyclables being collected. This collection of pieces really hit home with me because I recently had become aware of the huge mass if waste created by the fashion industry. Shin’s work takes leftover art and morphs it into new work, as an assemblage should. Shin’s work is my favorite of the exhibition, and similarly to Ukeles work it takes what has been regarded as trash and elevate it to become art, which allows the voyeur to become aware of these problems which seem invisible. Overall, I was glad I was able to see this exhibition, which I never would have been able to see unless I was assigned to visit it.
