Overview
Transformer celebrates the work of six artists furthering a new and engaging fashion sensibility in Washington, DC with Rejoice! Featuring dynamic visual creations by Washington DC area artists and designers Jess Feury, Sarah Hagen, Jennifer Potter, Karie Reinertson, Valerie Soles, and Justin Spivey, Rejoice! offers a unique collection of handmade clothing and artwork inspired by the artists' favorite recorded albums and cover artwork.
Utilizing a variety of materials and textiles such as faux fur, velvet, silk, corduroy, beadwork, lace, and more, each artist has a design style as diverse as the albums that fuel their creativity. All of the artists incorporate a "patchwork" approach in making their creations, often re-working vintage materials to create contemporary and cutting-edge clothing.
With artistic backgrounds ranging from photography to painting, graphic design to macramÈ, the artists all started designing clothing as an extension of their visual art-making practice. Each artist presents two-dimensional work in tandem to their wearable pieces providing a reference for the direction they are pursuing with their clothing designs. In addition to their original couture creations, Rejoice! will include a variety of multiples created by the participating artists:
Jess Feury is a DC-based artist who paints, designs store windows, creates one-of-a-kind clothing and handbags, and is the founder of the b side art collective, a project started out of DCCD record shop in 2002 to provide exposure and space for local artists and DJs. Jess believes strongly in the healing powers of creativity and uses this passion in her career as an art therapist, working with inner-city DC families. Regarding her work in Rejoice!, Jess states: "I chose Bjork's album, VESPERTINE for the overall tone I am attempting to create through my pieces , a magical, fairy tale-like quality that lends itself to a feeling of suspended timelessness. Listening to this album, I imagine the color white through many forms: snow, feathers, crystals, cotton, clouds, birds. There is a beautiful eeriness inherent to this record, a place where death is beautiful; wherein the chords and chimes, one can find respite from the chaos of earthly existence."
Sarah Hagen & Justin Spivey live together in the fawn forest snuggled away in their velvet cave handcrafting clothing and accessories. For Rejoice! they state: "Our piece is of cosmic matter. It was difficult to choose a record that would best translate a fabric expression. After grooving to some music it hit us, The Byrds younger than yesterday. We began working on this ambitious journey into the lyrics, breaking them into expressions we could use. We both love velvet and wanted that to be our main focus in creating a visual experience. We hope to enlighten everyone to this magical album through our vision of its meaning."
Jennifer Potter is a DC-based Graphic Designer/Illustrator. She received her BFA in Video and Sequential Arts from Savannah College of Art and Design. Regarding her designs for Rejoice!, Jennifer states, " The Faces album, A Nod Is as Good as a Wink to a Blind Horse, provides the inspiration for these pieces. Its light-hearted subject matter, paired with its tongue-in-cheek delivery, offers ample cause for rejoicing. The basis for these works comes from the traditional tartans often donned by the band members. I emulated the album's comedic tone by pairing traditional fabrics with a motley mix of faux fur, inspired by the blind horse himself. All of this is accented by numerous diagrams and algorithms in clean and striking contrast, which reference the two-dimensional, scientific interpretation of the music."
Karie Reinertson received her BFA in Fine Art from the Corcoran College of Art & Design in 2002 with a focus on painting and photography. She has also studied Fashion Business at the Fashion Institute of Technology, New York, NY. Karie is an accomplished clothing designer with her own clothing line The Kite Flying Society, Washington, DC. Her clothing is sold at FIX, Portland, OR, Vagabond, Philadelphia, PA, and Meeps, Washington, DC. For Rejoice!, Karie states: " Bull of the Woods by the 13th Floor Elevators is a poetic explanation of the past, present and future of human existence. It is an organic representation of beauty, infinity, and warmth. I chose this record because after years of listening to it, it continues to inform and inspire the art, clothing and music that I make. My work for this show is based on the overall dreamy, fuzzed out mood of the album and the lyrics of the song "Dr. Doom". I have created my own enchanted forests with ink, watercolor, and fabric."
Valerie Soles is a Washington, DC native currently pursuing a BFA from George Mason University. For her work in Rejoice!, Valerie responds to the album Peter, Paul and Mommy, stating: "Children's music and literature is replete with hints to the fragility of life. Masked in joyful tunes and captivating narratives is an often cruel-seeming take on mortality: from tales of imaginary friends to elderly grandfathers (as in Puff, the Magic Dragon and It's Raining), the sickly sweet sound of decay seems to permeate the insidiously good-natured Peter, Paul and Mommy. I chose this album because I am interested in the notions of "beautiful decay" and the romanticization of loss and how they are ingrained in us so wholly that we are at times prone to conflate joy and sorrow."
