Trappings: Stories of Women, Power and Clothing

TRAPPINGS Stories of Women, Power and Clothing

by Two Girls Working

exhibition catalog

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interviews or look at participant photos. They might attend a Trappings installation. They may buy the book.

Trappings Exhibition Tour

The participants can listen to their edited responses online. They can find their photo in the book. They can

516 ARTS Albuquerque, New Mexico, June 2008

locate themselves on the installation wall. And it is this ability to locate one’s self—to literally find one’s self—

Nicolaysen Museum Casper, Wyoming, May 2008

that sets the experience of Trappings apart. In speaking, Magdalena Martinez

in telling our story, we find ourselves. There are few experiences that hold more power than that.

Bronx River Art Center, Bronx, New York, March 2008

This links to the notion of silence that also is a component of Trappings. For, what is unstated is as critical to the

East Central College Gallery Union, Missouri, March 2008

project as what is stated. I’m thinking of the private deliberations, the private stories that compose a life. These are what participants

Trustman Art Gallery, Simmons College Boston, Massachusetts, October 2007

and viewers bring to the experience and what permit the possibility of change to weave through the project.

Historic Fashion Gallery, Lela Raney Wood Hall, Stephens College Columbia, Missouri, March 2007

A Trappings interview session includes confessional aspects. We reveal, in a gathering intimate in size and in

Robert A. Peck Gallery, Central Wyoming College Riverton, Wyoming, November 2006

content. But ultimately, we’re always most intimate with our own thoughts, with our own stories and lives, with silently, privately.

Regina Gouger Miller Gallery, Carnegie Mellon University Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, July 2006

I believe that every woman who has participated in

Additional venues to be announced.

Trappings cannot quite forget the question that starts it all: “What do you wear that makes you feel powerful?” Nor can installation visitors, bus riders, friends, co-workers and family who have heard the question repeated.

Lorraine O’Grady

our notions of power and how we play it. We carry those

It stays. That is part of its own power. It’s there when we dress, when we undress, when we believe that we are not thinking about it. The question lingers, as does the story. It acquires another line and goes on providing contours to lives, New Mexico, the world.

Trappings continues. We continue. We reinvent ourselves and our world. We find ourselves, we find our stories. And in stories, we find ourselves returned to us.

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Kathy Freise holds a PhD in American Studies with an emphasis on public art. She has been a Trappings participant and has hosted a Trappings interview session.

Two Girls Working: Tiffany Ludwig and Renee Piechocki photo by Ryan Hughes

COVER left to right: La’Tasha D. Mayes, Tweety Paisano-Suazo, Rocio Aranda-Alvarado, Stephanie Rivera, Cynthia Cook, Susan Chin, Clara Lee Arnold, Erika Soveranes.

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Credits Grant Funders

Board of Directors

Bernalillo County City of Albuquerque Mayor Martin J. Chavez Urban Enhancement Trust Fund The FUNd at Albuquerque Community Foundation McCune Charitable Foundation New Mexico Department of Tourism New Mexico Humanities Council

John Lewinger, Chair Suzanne Sbarge, President Arturo Sandoval, Vice President Joni Thompson, Treasurer/Secretary

Business Sponsors Bank of Albuquerque BGK Group Charter Bank Coldwell Banker First Community Bank First National Bank of Santa Fe Goodman Realty Group Grubb & Ellis Heritage Hotels & Resorts John & Jamie Lewinger New Mexico Bank & Trust New Mexico Business Weekly Paradigm & Company SG Properties Stewart Title of Albuquerque Sunrise Bank Technology Ventures Corporation Staff & Consultants Suzanne Sbarge, Executive Director Rhiannon Mercer, Program Coordinator John Photos, Exhibitions Manager Bryan Kaiser, Education Coordinator Sharon Berman, Education Consultant Lisa Gill, Literary Arts Coordinator Ann Bitter, Planning Consultant Janice Fowler, Bookkeeper Jane Kennedy, Development Associate Word of Eye, Web Site Design

Advisory Board Andrew Connors Miguel Gandert Arif Khan Norty Kalishman Diane Karp Wendy Lewis Danny Lopez Susan McAllister Christopher Mead Elsa Menendez Melody Mock Special Thanks Albuquerque Convention & Visitors Bureau Bella Roma Bed & Breakfast City of Albuquerque ABQ Ride, Greg Payne, Director Planning Dept., Richard Dineen, Director Clear Channel Outdoor, Sally Adams David Blanc / One Up Desert Dog Technology Downtown Action Team Grubb & Ellis Historic District Improvement Company Indian Pueblo Cultural Center Anna Muller National Hispanic Cultural Center Rio Grande Community Development Corporation Arturo Sandoval, in honor of Anna Kavanaugh Sandoval South Valley Economic Development Center Starline Printing Stubblefield Screenprinting Company UNM Department of Communication & Journalism Zuni Pueblo

© 516 ARTS, 2008 516 Central Avenue SW, Albuquerque, NM 87102 • 505-242-1445 • www.516arts.org Design by Suzanne Sbarge & John Photos. Printed by Don Mickey Designs.