#sarah grass

[svaartpractice]

Alexandra Hammond, Sarah Grass and Pippi Zornoza at 184 Project Space

“Suffer Better,” curated by AP alum Alexandra Hammond (‘15) and featuring work by Sarah Grass (‘16) and Pippi Zornoza (‘16) opens this weekend at 184 Project Space.

[svaartpractice]

Sarah Grass at Doppelgänger Projects

Sarah Grass (AP ‘16) presents her solo show, “Unmanned” at Doppelgänger Projects in Ridgewood.

[svaartpractice]

MFA AP at Bushwick Open Studios

This weekend, Brooklyn-based members of the AP community open up their studios to the public as part of Bushwick Open Studios. Check out work by Sarah Grass (AP '16), Sarah G. Sharp (AP Faculty), Brandi Martin Yu (AP '15) and Alexandra Hammond (AP '15). Search for them on the BOS Map. 

[svaartpractice]

She's Not Smiling; She's Upside Down

Pop-up show this Saturday July 1 featuring several members of the AP community: Nat Castañeda (AP '14), Sarah Grass (AP '16), Alexandra Hammond (AP '15), Alfonso Ponce de León (AP '18) and Robin Winters (AP Faculty).

[svaartpractice]

“We exist in the wandering of systems, some of which are invisible to us, just as we are invisible to some.“ — Sarah Grass (AP '16)

[svaartpractice]

The MFA Art Practice Department at the School of Visual Arts is pleased to present a screening of video work by current students and featured faculty member Robin Winters. 

Sketched Out: A Screening features the work of Hovey Brock / Sarah Grass / Rori Knudtson / Brandi Martin / Kevin Townsend / Laura Scandrett / Alexandra Sullivan / Baroque Power Group. 

Come to Videology Bar & Cinema (308 Bedford Ave, Brooklyn 11249) opening at 6pm and screening begins at 6:20pm. 

[sensingelsewherehere]

Sarah Grass

Elective Confinement, 2015 (detail) 

[sensingelsewherehere]

We’re Already Trapped: Relax to Resist

by Sarah Grass

“The hedonic treadmill of consuming to connect with (and to disassociate with) class, gender, and titles permeates Western culture and lives just as comfortably in the East,” says Elissa Ecker, who hails from rural Minnesota but currently resides in Bangkok. She’s been living in Asia for 6 years, arriving in Thailand by way of Korea and China. As an expat traversing 3 countries, cultures, and languages in 6 years, images can be an asset. But what exactly do the cultural images convey?

Above: detail of Elissa Ecker’s this is not a trap, 2015

Critical of relentless consumer culture, particularly that of women’s fashion, Ecker vowed not to purchase any clothing for one calendar year. Instead, she is using shopping (and her latent desire) as a medium. Browsing the international women's fashion market, Ecker transforms absurdities of the industry, as well as self-critique, into more self-aware products.   

Blurring the line between visual merchandising and sculpture, Ecker has styled, packaged and displayed an assortment of synthetic hair extensions that were manufactured in China, bought in Bangkok, and brought to New York. Behind protective glass cases lining a corner of the room, each of the 9 pieces confesses their defect: choppily cut chunks woven into traps, specifically Chinese finger traps. As the title suggests, however, this is not a trap. Carefully placing the “non-traps” amidst the tresses they were cut from, it seems Ecker is revealing her motive and and solving a puzzle for us. She appears to be hinting that we're already trapped and must relax to resist.

Around the corner, Ecker has lined the hallway of the gallery with another product “line”: China Dolled Up to the Nines, (5 leather finger traps wearing fake eyelashes on either end). Swapping hair for hide, these pieces further indicate that we have skin in the game. The Chinese finger trap cannot be escaped with willful resistance; it’s intended to promote peaceful problem solving. Rather than wag a freed finger, Ecker is alluring us in further so that we may loosen the ties that bind and escape whatever it is that traps us.