“Fashion is a Verb” exhibit explores inner aspects of outerware

Fashion is a Verb: Art, Performance, and Identity, at William Paterson University Galleries, investigates fashion as an everyday action and an art form linked to sociocultural issues.

“To ‘fashion’ as a verb is to interrogate oneself and to examine the daily aesthetic practices that are necessary for the establishment of our identities, communities, and values,” says Laura Di Summa, assistant philosophy professor. She curated the exhibit with Kristen Evangelista, former director of the University Galleries,.

Works on view include paintings, photographs, textiles, and film by Lisa Anne Auerbach, Zehra Doğan, Mari Katayama, ORLAN, Natasha May Platt, Yelaine Rodriguez, Cindy Sherman, and Jean Shin.

A number of events will be held in conjunction with the exhibition. Participants will be able to try their hand at embroidery, tie-dye, and collage methods in the two-part series Fashion Yourself: Workshops with Artist Natasha May Platt on Thursday, March 3, 2022, from 12:30 to 1:30 p.m, and Thursday, April 7, 2022, from 12:30 to 1:30 p.m. Exhibiting artist Yelaine Rodriguez will present a talk titled “Afro Syncretic: The Heart & Soul of the African Diaspora” on Thursday, March 31, 2022, from 12:30 to 1:30 p.m. Professor Di Summa and exhibiting artist Jean Shin will come together for a conversation titled “Discards and the Consequences of Consumerism” on Wednesday, April 14, 2022, from 12:30 to 1:30 p.m. All four programs will be presented synchronously, both online and in person, in the South Gallery.

The University Galleries has partnered with the Berlin School of Mind and Brain at Humboldt University of Berlin—one of the leading research institutes that promotes research at the intersection of neuroscience, psychology, and philosophy—in order to conduct an experimental study on the relationship between fashion and identity and the perception of style. Exhibit visitors will participate in a survey about their own fashion choices and the results will be presented in a panel discussion with Professor Di Summa, Dr. Joerg Fingerhut, a researcher at the Berlin School of Mind and Brain, and Dr. Aenne A. Brielmann, a post-doctoral fellow at the Max Planck Institute for Biological Cybernetics in Germany, on Wednesday, May 4, 2022 from 4 to 5 p.m., both online and in person in the South Gallery.

An illustrated catalogue will feature scholarly essays, artist biographies, and an exhibition checklist. Contributing writers will address interdisciplinary perspectives encompassing art, aesthetics, philosophy, and women’s and gender studies.

Fashion is a Verb is one of two exhibitions on view concurrently in the William Paterson University Galleries. Memory Keepers, featuring new works and site-specific installations by artists iliana emilia García and Scherezade García, will be on view in the Court Gallery from January 31 through April 13, 2022.

The exhibition, Fashion is a Verb: Art, Performance and Identity, will be on view in the Ben Shahn Center for the Visual Arts on campus from January 31 through May 6, 2022. Gallery hours are Tuesday through Friday, 11 a.m. to 5 p.m., and select Saturdays and Sundays (April 9, April 23, and May 1) from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. Admission is free.

This exhibition is supported in part by a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts. Programs are also made possible in part by funds from the New Jersey State Council on the Arts. The William Paterson University Galleries are wheelchair-accessible. Large-print educational materials are available. For additional information, please call the William Paterson University Galleries at 973-720-2654.

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