UpDate - Vol. 14, No. 31, Page 7
May 11, 1995
Recycled clothes, objects featured in traveling show

     Recycle, Reuse and Recreate" is the theme of an art exhibition,
developed by the Arts America Program of the U.S. Information Agency,
now being circulated in Africa.
     Two UD professors and an alumna have works included in the show,
which features new objects fashioned from recycled materials and
showcases works that are both functional and esthetically innovative.
     Curated by Dorothy Spencer and organized by Arts Counsel Inc.,
the exhibit includes everything from decorative frames made from
sardine cans and bottle caps to a chair made from driftwood, a fishing
pole and boat oars.
     Karen Schaeffer and Mary Jane Matranga, both in the Department of
Textiles, Design and Consumer Economics, have articles of clothing in
the show.
     Using just about anything they can find, from neoprene to dental
dam, discarded feed sacks, industrial textile waste, telephone wires,
fountain pen nibs and a variety of other objects, some scavenged from
the streets, the designers create costumes and jewelry in styles
ranging from Asian to urban, from environmental statements to Tibetan
reproductions.
     Schaeffer's works in the exhibit include a coat knitted from
wool, burlap, fabric scraps, metal bits, found objects and feathers; a
dress and headpiece made from rubber neoprene, telephone wire, balsa
wood and hardware; and a Tibetan coat made from cast-off socks, feed
sacks and a sugar sack.
     Matranga's entry is a coat of hand-painted canvas with closures
made of found objects, including old chain, worn leather, a piece of
rusted iron, glass bottle shards and nails.
     "We enjoy the challenge of taking what's been left over,
discarded and the like, then turning these materials into functional,
wearable pieces," the artists say. Their wearable art is a clever
vehicle for illustrating the old adage that one person's junk is truly
another's riches.
     Alumna Teresa Barkley, Delaware '78 of Astoria, N.Y., has three
quilts in the show. "The Dawn of Television" quilt is made from cotton
fabric and the linen pages of an antique book. The "How To Get A
Husband Stamp" quilt is made from vintage handkerchiefs, old tea
towels and Victorian scrap heat transfers. The quilt, "Pacific Tears,"
is made from salt sacks, an Alaskan tablecloth, old handkerchiefs,
hairnet and medallions.
     "My works springs from an interest in both fiber and collecting,"
Barkley says. "While patchwork is, by its nature, a collection of
different fabrics, I strive to carry the process a step further by
incorporating 'found object' materials. In this way, the quilts become
a sort of fiber collage. Traditional American patchwork was made from
the salvageable portions of worn-out clothes and scraps left from
cutting new clothes. Continuing this tradition, but in a very
different design format, I combine new fabrics with old fabrics, such
as printed feed sacks, linen children's books, old lace, canvas, money
bags and commemorative handkerchiefs."
     Barkley says she considers quilts an art form that, "like poetry,
becomes much more than the sum of its parts.
     "While painting or ceramics require a blending of materials," she
says, "scraps of fabric, like words, retain their original character,
while achieving new meaning by virtue if their juxtaposition."
                                                          -Beth Thomas