installation view (photo by Max Wagner)
A piece of fabric can have many lives — strewn about our homes, on streets, in store fronts. But for every wearable item, there are also leftovers and scraps that can either be discarded or repurposed. Fashion designer, fine artist and educator Hadley Clark knows much about the varied and often wasteful lifecycle of garments. In her first solo exhibition of sculptural garments, “I Made This for You and Me” at UMKC Gallery of Art, Clark utilizes remnants and repurposed materials to reframe garments as domestic items, like curtains, tablecloths and wall hangings.
Clark explains the way this idea began in an online post, “…one thought was to use the remnants, the shapes of the 2D garment pieces. I wondered if I could use the remnants as floor coverings, keeping the garments attached to their history and waste.” By utilizing both the piece of clothing and what would typically be discarded, “I Made This for You and Me” shines a light on the environmental impact of fashion as well as the often-hidden way garments are created. The exhibition is both literally and figuratively multi-layered, as Clark works with fragments of different materials to patch and collage, and as she weaves emotional and spiritual significance into the works.
Entering UMKC Art Gallery, viewers are immediately swept into large-scale fabric sculptures.
Clark features three similar silhouettes, each called “Mediums.” These hangings feature two coats, pulling toward each other with frayed rectangles of shared scraps connecting the two. The first, “Mediums – Muslin,” is unbleached, plain and serious in its utility. The second, “Mediums – Collage,” is fashioned from cotton textile waste, patched together from patterned fabrics. According to Clark’s artist statement, the piece contains “…colors and surfaces collaged and uneven, like a feeling as it passes.” Fleeting sentiment is prevalent throughout “I Made This for You and Me.” There is a sense that the titular “you and me” are undefined, just out of reach. This is especially true in “Medium – Tulle” constructed of donated, synthetic white tulle. Hanging on a back wall, the piece is nearly imperceptible, like a quiet ghost or the skin of a stranger brushing against you as you pass.
Pulling attention to the center of the gallery is “Self Portrait – Table Cloth Dress with Altar,” a found table and chair painted deep blue with swaths of exposed wood. A gown made from a donated, polyblend lace tablecloth is worn by the chair, its wood back forming lifeless shoulders. The remnants of the gown’s pattern drape across the table, which is layered with pressed and dried flowers. The piece is lonesome and reverent — an empty single chair scooted up to the floral altar, as if the worshiper left their body mid-prayer.
The overall effect of “I Made This for You and Me” is that of sentimentality and play, with beautifully constructed and arranged sculptural garments. It is as if Clark’s curious self discovered life and purpose in the flowers and found fabrics from around her home studio and made them especially for you.
Clark will hold at Memory Circle Workshop from noon to 3 p.m. Oct. 12. This workshop “will include technical hand sewing demonstrations as well as a space to intimately connect participants and their garments through the act of stitching.”
“Hadley Clark: ‘I Made This for You and Me’” continues at UMKC Gallery of Art, 5015 Holmes St., through Nov. 15. Hours are 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday-Thursday and noon to 5 p.m. Friday. By appointment only Saturday and Sunday. For more information, 816.235.1502 or info.umkc.edu/gallery.
