| CURRENT: potential
energy mini
movie festival |
Patchwork grew
out of a project called the Tokyo Recycling Project, a project where
Japanese artists restructured existing clothing to different degrees
on a sliding scale of cost (the cheapest being $500 as I remember).
Our project consisted of amateur and occasional sewers constructing
new garments from thrift store finds and discarded clothing and
scraps. The whole thing lasted almost two months. It began with
teaching and practicing techniques and little experiments. As Patchwork progressed more finished pieces emerged and eventually we began soliciting people to bring in clothing they liked but didn't work how they needed it to. Too big, not warm enough, too tight in the neck, etc- the sewers brought the clothes into harmony with their owners. And this was the best part of Patchwork. Pre-made clothing is not intended to anticipate our needs, it generalizes, so we were able to adjust a few items for people. For the closing event we changed our space from a workshop to a retail spot with racks of clothes, a video of people working during the project and our friends playing music. We sold $250 worth of clothes. Patchwork still stands as one of our favorite projects, exhausting, interesting DIY fervor.
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