Design Federation

November 27, 2007 to January 24, 2008

Nylon Riots, Caroline Mak and Kevin Chan’s first show with wooloo.org, is a multi-faceted, interactive exhibition requiring the participation of a global network of people, as well as the physical presence and labor of willing participants in the gallery. The artists have transformed WOOLOO’s NEW LIFE SHOP gallery into a space that simultaneously functions as a factory, boutique, and open marketplace.

Through an open call for submissions, visitors to the website nylonriots.com become T-shirt designers, submitting designs that are posted and displayed in the exhibition. Equally important is the participation of the visitors to the gallery. Visitors simultaneously play the role of laborer, consumer, and tourist. They are responsible for choosing a design, then manufacturing the T-shirt using the blank T-shirts and piles of various textiles and second-hand clothes that activate the gallery space. Workstations with basic tools will be set up for the visitors to complete their garments. After completion, visitors may then keep the T-shirt both as compensation and as a souvenir of their efforts in the gallery.

Nylon Riots explores the ecosystem of a brand in the contemporary garment industry. The concept is two fold. First, the artists have launched a new garment brand, preparing it with the necessary means to exist: a forum for design, a process and raw materials for production, and finally, a marketplace for consumption. With this infrastructure in place, the ecosystem must now be brought to life with the participation of the audience as designers, laborers, and consumers. Only then will the brand reveal its ultimate form and substance.

The very real risk of failure – especially as this project’s execution is dependent upon user participation and thus at the mercy of its participants – becomes a very apt side note to this tongue in cheek commentary on today’s consumer driven fashion market. Additionally, the separation of the remote design process from the labor and subsequent consumption in the gallery brings light to the often fragmented nature of garment production processes. Ultimately, this project weaves together all these themes, elements, and interactions to form a microcosm of the global garment industry.

This is Caroline Mak and Kevin Chan’s first collaborative project together. Mak, from Hong Kong, is an artist based in Brooklyn. She graduated with her Master’s in Fine Art from the University of Chicago in 2005, and has exhibited her site-specific installations in a number of exhibitions both in New York and across the United States. She is a recipient of an Emerging Artist Fellowship at Socrates Sculpture Park, NYC, where her sculptural installation is currently on view. Chan, from Vancouver, Canada, graduated with a Bachelor of Applied Science in Digital Media Design from the University of Pennsylvania in 2002. Since then, he has been working with new media in a number of artistic and commercial capacities, namely as an interactive designer at The Barbarian Group, an interactive marketing firm in New York City.

The exhibition will open November 27th and will continue through January, 2008.For further information, please contact the artists at caroline@nylonriots.com or the gallery at: contact@wooloo.org

Tags: Caroline Mak, Kevin Chan, nylon riots, tees, tshirt