Kimberly Brooks | Thread & Bone

T H R E A D

&

B O N E

an art installation by

K I M B E R LY B R O O K S

T H R E A D

&

B O N E

an art installation by

K I M B E R LY B R O O K S

March 19 - July 24, 2015 An art installation exploring the relationship between fashion, structure and painting in the historic Cooper Design Space Los Angeles, CA

SAGE PROJECTS

SCULPTURE COLLAGE V I D E O I N S TA L L AT I O N TEXTILE ART PERFORMANCE PA I N T I N G

E X C E R P T F R O M A R T I S T TA L K Kimberly Brooks with Shana Nys Drambot May 3, 2015 at The Cooper Design Space

Shana Nys Drambot: For those of you who may not know Kimberly as in depth as others, I want to get her to put this installation in context of this sort of career long — at this point many years long — direct fascination, exploration, inspiration, deconstruction, and sourcing of the fashion, fashion culture, fashion world, media, and all that in relationship to art and after that then we can talk about how we got to here to the Cooper Building.

Kimberly Brooks: Not many people know this about me, but I studied architecture and English at Berkeley. So, when the Cooper Building approached me to do a painting show in this space, I walked in, and I thought the ceilings are so high, I felt like this space doesn’t want a painting show. This wants an entirely different kind of show, and I wanted to speak in a way that I knew that I could with architecture and also with the context of what this building is.

As I was standing here looking up at the ceilings, the most incredible looking people were walking by me because this is the epicenter of the fashion industry in Los Angeles. A lot of my work has

7

related so much to — it varies so not always but to — the language and architecture of fashion within painting. And so when I walked in, I immediately saw that there needed to be this sculpture and that’s what popped into my mind. And then I thought we need curtains — fabric and textiles.

I decided to continue to take it a step further and further, so that’s how this show came about.

Shana: Your one series, The Stylist Project, really fascinates me because it is behind the scenes of the fashion industry where they themselves are also active practitioners, which really relates so well to this building where it’s not fashion stores but actual design studios.

Kimberly: That’s why they approached me. While I was working on the series Mom’s Friends, I was trying to depict the 1970s, and for research, I went to a lecture that was happening at LACMA where the costume council was talking about how Oscar de la Renta and Coco Chanel influenced the paintings of Matisse. I was sitting in the audience, and I saw the most exquisitely dressed women with feathered hats, and McQueen, and the most elaborate costumes I have ever seen. Every single woman was highly curated; their opal ring matched their nail polish, matched their purse, matched everything. And I thought these women

8

are like a work of art, each one of them is perfect.

And as I was sitting there, I thought to myself, “What would it be like if you could take the most articulate people in the language of style and fashion and ask them to style themselves and pose for their portrait. And so I went to the magazine racks and took out all the magazines. This was before September Issue came out, the movie about Anna Wintour and Grace Coddington, and it was before The Devil Wears Prada. I got all the mast heads, and I realized there was this universe: there’s stylists, there’s costume designers, there’s celebrity stylists, there’s fashion editors, who are at the top, if you were to making kind of like a hierarch. It’s a whole labrythintine universe. And they all sat for me – Grace Coddington, Joe Zee, Elizabeth Stuart. Then we had the most fabulous show in Los Angeles. And so these [collages], what you see around you, I literally took high resolution scans of my paintings, and I cut them out and draped them onto these dress forms, so that’s Jennifer Goodwin who’s in Dior, and that’s Marissa Tome, and I know you can’t see it but every one is from another painting from The Stylist Project because I wanted the collages to relate to the building.

Shana: I love the idea that it was Grace Coddington that you painted, scanned like a photograph, and

9

cut again — like before it was a dress — like your video. You’ve created a universe or a vibration of that and actually it’s a perfect sort of segway. because — I might be wrong but — I don’t think that we’ve seen this huge amount of digital work from you before.

Kimberly: You never have. It’s always been painting.

Shana: Ok. Certainly, for one thing, it’s a practical matter that when you’re going to do something in a public space like this I’m not sure how you would have paintings hanging here. But also, in the terms of — probably what’s going on upstairs — fashion designers have a lot of ingenuity just like any visual artist. They are creating something with this many layers. It isn’t a short cut for laziness, but it’s a different sort of process other than sketching and then painting. So, now that you’ve done it, do you think you’ll be doing more of it?

Kimberly: I do. These skills are art, so there’s a huge connection there. The technology of painting, what mediums to use, that’s all technology.

Whether it’s learning Photoshop or Illustrator, or all these different types of programs, it’s the same creative tool. But, I do feel that I’ve been searching

10

for a way integrate painting and collage in a way that wasn’t derivative and cheap. I could have easily just displayed my paintings, but I wanted to go much further than that. I decided to bring all of the ideas together in form and architecture and drapery, and just take it one step further.

Shana: Yes, the interconnections are creating meaning. Obviously, the structure and the sculpture and the twice removed represented fabric with actual fabric, sort of reminds you that there’s all that happening. I love that the video is black and white because it really keeps the focus on the labor and the making. It’s all very carefully put together and responsive to the history of the space and the perimeters of the space. And like I said, I’m still just super happy with the sculpture.

It really kind of looks like it’s always been there.

I’ve been in this building a lot, and I can imagine that I can easily walk in one day and ask, “Has that been there this whole time?” Because it’s really perfect. You’ve also pulled in relationships with that because it feels like the culmination of everything we’ve been talking about.

11

COLLAGES & PAINTINGS

VIDEO INSTALLATION

DRAMATIC HEIGHT FOR SCULPTURE

COSTUMES & CHOREOGRAPHY

SCULPTURE Ephemerality of Manner Created out of unfinished steel, this eight foot by six foot piece hangs in the center of the lobby. Collaborating with a local fabricator, Brooks transforms a free-flowing form into a rigid structure.

The Cooper Design Space has since acquired the sculpture, and it will be on permanent display in the lobby.

1

COLLAGE Brooks cuts and drapes paintings of fabric over fashion structures and photographs in these large panel collages interspersed amongst the concrete pillars.

7

Blue Mannequin 66 x 30 in. Mixed Media Collage, Archival Ink, Ed. 3/3 9

Green and Red 66 x 30 in. Mixed Media Collage, Archival Ink, Ed. 3/3 10

Yellow Dior on Form 66 x 30 in. Mixed Media Collage, Archival Ink, Ed. 3/3 11

The Visitor 66 x 30 in. Mixed Media Collage, Archival Ink, Ed. 3/3 14

The Caller 66 x 30 in. Mixed Media Collage, Archival Ink, Ed. 3/3 15

V I D E O I N S TA L L AT I O N A black and white video of hands cutting and sewing fabric is projected in slow motion on the large wall in the back of the lobby.

19

TEXTILE ART Two bolts of grey, fine burlap/ linen fabric is purchased from the famous Los Angeles Fabric District nearby and transformed into twenty foot high draperies as a counter point to the concrete pillars.

The same fabric is used to create skirts for the three teenage girls. Skirts created by the local fashion designer Lisa Franco.

21

PERFORMANCE During the Opening Reception, three teenage girls, wearing the same fabric as the draperies, perform a simple dance following the tiles of the lobby floor.

Choreography by Los Angeles Based Choreographer Shula.

23

PA I N T I N G Select paintings of Brooks’ that celebrate shapes and textiles hang in the more intimate hallway near the reception desk beneath the projection wall.

25

D O A R T F O U N D AT I O N & SAGE PROJECTS The Thread & Bone Art Installation is a collaboration between DOART Foundation and Sage Projects. Both organizations focus on the creation and promotion of artwork visible in the public landscape. doartfoundation.org sage-projects.org

Image: Opening Reception on Mach 19, 2015 29

K I M B E R LY B R O O K S Kimberly Brooks is a painter and multimedia artist based in LA. Her work integrates figuration and abstraction to explore a variety of subjects dealing with memory, identity and architecture.

Brooks has solo exhibitions through the United States, and her work has been showcased in juried exhibitions, including curators from the Whitney Museum of American Art, The Museum of Modern Art, California Institute of the Arts, and the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. Brooks received her BA at UC Berkeley and studied painting at Otis and UCLA. Brooks lives in Los Angeles and works out of her studio in Venice, California. kimberlybrooks.com

31

T H E CO O P E R D E S I G N S PAC E The historic Cooper Building was constructed in 1927 for LA’s fashion designers and manufacturers. Since then, the building has undergone a variety of changes but has always remained a significant part of the fashion world. Today, renovated as Cooper Design Space, the building is home-base to LA creatives and businesses in fashion, media arts and publishing. cooperdesignspace.com

33

KIMBERLY BROOKS: THREAD & BONE March 19, 2015 - July 24, 2015 Gateway Gallery Collaborators: DoArt Foundation & Sage Projects Cooper Design Space Los Angeles, California Publisher: Griffith Moon Design: Judy Toretti Photography: Mike Selsky, Static Media Printing: Art Works, Fine Art Publishing First Edition, June 2015 Printed and Bound in California All Images Š KIMBERLY BROOKS All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be duplicated or transmitted in any form without prior written consent from the artist. Displaying such material without prior permission is a violation of international copyright laws. www.kimberlybrooks.com

THREAD & BONE K I M B E R LY B R O O K S