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Stephanie Forsythe and Todd MacAllen. Molo Designs, Canada, “Soft Wall,” freestanding wall, Tyvek and industrial felt, 7½ by 18 feet; museum purchase.

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Liz Collins, “Samurai Coat,” fall 2001, Museum of Art, Rhode Island School of Design, gift of the artist. —Erik Gould photo, ©Liz Collins

 

 

 

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FOR 2/15

‘EVOLUTION/ REVOLUTION’ TO OPEN AT RISD FEB. 22 w/2 cuts

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PROVIDENCE, R.I. — The RISD Museum of Art will present “Evolution/Revolution: The Arts and Crafts in Contemporary Fashion and Textiles,” on view February 22–June 15.

Organized by Joanne Ingersoll, curator of costume and textiles, “Evolution Revolution” brings together the work of contemporary designers who share a commitment to quality of life over mass branding, as well as a mutual practice of innovation in design and exploration of new technology.

The exhibition features the work of more than 20 designers, artists and architects from the United States, Britain, Europe, Mexico and Japan who create fashion and textiles in a spirit reminiscent of the early Arts and Crafts movement’s response to industry. Many of these contemporary designers unify technology with the creative process while also tackling social issues, such as sustainable design.

These artists — socially conscious, technically literate and possessed of a creative vision — are attempting to assert more control over how their ideas are realized in manufacture. Today, there is a veritable explosion of “cottage-industry” production in which the “cottage” may contain high-tech laser and/or digital printers, looms and knitting machines. Advances in printing, weaving and embroidery processes have made an unprecedented creative environment possible on a small scale.

Molo Design comprises a group of trained architects with backgrounds in fine art and material craft. For them, hands-on “making” is fundamental, and their experience with product manufacture encourages experimentation. They continually investigate the potential of factory production and prefabrication in order to create construction methods and building systems that are less wasteful of energy and materials than previously.

The firm’s “soft” product line represented in this exhibition makes possible a flexible use of space through honeycomb technology.

Sophie Roet, known for her earlier “techno-textile” successes, is another example. She recently returned to a craft approach and developed her ideas in a commercial collaboration with R.B. Enterprises in India, through which she is addressing issues of fair trade, colonialist consumption of goods, and global interrelations in the textiles industry.

The exhibition draws attention to the ways in which issues of control over the process of manufacture and the type of materials employed connect present and past designer/reformers. Currently, micro technologies, care for the environment, issues of sustainable production, and the social implications of global trade and economics define the reform movement, but the integration of art and life was also a hallmark of the late Nineteenth Century Arts and Crafts movement.

The exhibition will include works from about 20 designers, among them Issey Miyake’s HaaT Collections, Tess Gibberson, Eugene van Veldhoven, Fernando and Humberto Campagna for Design with a Conscience, Artecnica, Claudy Jongstra, Hil Driessen and Natalie Chanin of Alabama Chanin.

The museum is at 224 Benefit Street. For information, 401-454-6500 or www.risd.edu.