2017

The Lusting Breed

Bodega, New York, New York
February 25–April 16 2017

The Influencer, 2017, Pressed wool, natural dyes, cotton mohair steel, with Brittany Mroczek, 54x49x6 in

This exhibition consists of five tableaus made of pressed wool, dyed with natural materials and cut with pressurized water. The images inscribed and materials used were chosen to reflect a few of the ways that women work. Some of these images may look familiar to you: a rendering of Courbet's The Grain Sifters and The Sleeping Spinner, while some of these scenes may feel familiar to you: women trading in influence, selection, assistance and care by communicating, designing, aiding, sifting, listening, responding, crafting and up-scaling. Like these women, some of you may also be leveraging your ability to engage in this work at a time that fetishizes such modes of production, particularly affective labor (which is often made invisible) and artisanal craft (which is often made hypervisible). These ways that women work are neither universal nor natural. These images are not atemporal or timeless, they are tethered to 1853, 1855, 2017, 2017 and 2017.

The Grain Sifters, 2017, Pressed wool, natural dyes, steel, 73x85x6 in
Sleeping Spinner, 2017, Pressed wool, natural dyes, steel, 63x79x6 in
The Bins, 2017, Pressed wool, natural dyes, steel, 64x79x6 in
The Assistant, 2017, Pressed wool, natural dyes, steel, 53x73x6 in

Dena Yago