Collected Pieces:
A Sculptural Fashion Show by:
Skye Livingston & Maegan Stracy
"People are their collections. It is in our nature to gather, gathering both the tangible and ephemeral, ostentatious and personal." -Livingston&Stracy
Skye Livingston is a sculptor working with textiles, paper and organic materials in Kansas City. She has received several awards for her work including the Northwest Area Arts Council’s Fiber & Textile Arts Award and is one of the newest recipients of Charlotte Street's Urban Culture Project studio spaces. Most recently, she was recognized as Best of Show in the 2012 Kansas City Art Institute BFA Exhibition, an award juried by the director of the Nelson-Atkins Art Museum Julian Zugazagoitia and New York based photographer Andres Serrano. Livingston graduated from the Kansas City Art Institute in 2012 with a BFA in Fiber and Art History.
She states: "My work explores the process of healing. Through the use of time-intensive and repetitive processes, my work reflects the elements of chore and prayer necessary for recovery. I utilize materials that look like and function as skin, highlighting both its delicate nature and ability to be repaired. I find skin intriguing because it encapsulates an identity and holds memories in the marks it bears. I consider each piece a personal monument, serving as a reminder of a past experience or part of my ideology."
Maegan Stracy is a recent graduate from the Kansas City Art Institute. During her studies at KCAI Stracy double majored in Fiber and Art History. Stracy’s work ranges from installation-based pieces to wearable garments. Recently Stracy was commissioned by the Nelson Atkins Museum of Art to design and fabricate handbags for the museum docents.
Stracy has shown locally at events such as the West 18th Street Fashion show, and internationally at the Fab Lab in Berlin, Germany. Currently Stracy is the Fiber technician and studio coordinator at the Kansas City Art Institute and is a recent recipient of a studio residency through the Charlotte Street Foundation’s Urban Culture Project.
Maegan states: "My work highlights the impracticalities of the fashion world. Through my material choices and investigations, I conceive of accessories that are unusable and garments that are inaccessible. By combining these practical forms with impractical packaging this current body of work shows how unattainable the fashion world can be, and comments on the lengths a consumer may go to in order to reach the unachievable or sometimes absurd. These pieces emphasize the importance of branding and packaging in the fashion world, but can also relate to other aspects of consumerism."
Opening Reception for Collected Pieces is 6:00-10:00pm Friday October 5th.