Secret Dungeon Project

EXHIBITION: Stamina
Secret Dungeon, Brooklyn, NY
Finger crochet
15,150 feet of polyester & cotton clothesline
Dimensions variable
2017

LINK TO THE PROJECT PAGE »

For the duration of five weeks, I occupied the Secret Dungeon Project space in Bushwick, Brooklyn, building the installation from the inside-out from clothesline sourced at the local 99-cent store. Working with clothesline had me thinking about both domestic labor and the textile industry. Eventually, when I ran out of materials at the 99-cent store, I started going to a warehouse in Maspeth, Queens, to buy the rope in bulk. Through this process, I learned about the supply chain of this seemingly benign material and built relationships with people along the way.  

For several hours a day, I sat in the storage space converted into a gallery without internet or phone service. As my fingers performed a repetitive, rote task of slipping one knot into the next, I contemplated the nature of the hidden labor all around me, both inside the home done by women, and the immigrant labor force employed inside factories, mills, and other sites of textile production.  

For the duration of the exhibition, visitors would stop by and we would chat about the creative process. Often, people would reveal personal stories about family and craft prompted by the ability to touch and be immersed in the sculpture. As the web grew larger and stronger, people would not only touch the piece with their hands, but lean into it with their entire bodies, cocooning themselves inside the sculpture. At one point, the piece was holding four adult bodies at the same time, showing the strength of the material and the process of making it.