2012
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Mock up installation of Rapunzel in my living room.
The ceiling in my studio wasn’t tall enough, so I installed in my living room, which wasn’t even close to being tall enough either, but I eventually settled. Rapunzel has officially reached 30 feet tall and comprised of about 50 strands. Which makes the sculpture altogether approximately 1500 feet long. It still growing by the day.
(Pictured is ~1/3 of actual sculpture)
This ever-shifting continuous piece has been exhibited three times now and has altered in structure site-specifically to each space variation as well as the particular architecture of each gallery. The first time it was exhibited it was one strand and 10 feet tall in the Small exhibit at a gallery with low ceilings in downtown Las Vegas. A few months later, the fabric sculpture was part of Women, an female group exhibition, inside the Grant Hall Gallery in which Rapunzel was about 15 tall and 20 strands and the ceilings were much higher. This past May was its’ most recent showing for In the Nick of Time for my BFA thesis showing inside the Donna Beam Gallery, and it hung 30 feet with 30 strands in the two story gallery.
Rapunzel’s nature is very much like hair in which it continues to grow and transforms into various shapes depending on the occasion (or in this case ~location). This sculpture is congruent and in response to consumerism and mass production, so as long as consumers continue to buy in abundance, then my materials will persevere as long as I pursue my collection of donations.
The intensive nature of this process, in which I meticulously measure and cut all the clothing, only to hand sew it back together and cut, is a way for me to recycle the efforts of labor of these various products. Though my efforts may seem futile and absurd, I continue to collect wasted no-resale clothes from women in my community as well as other everyday materials such as appliances, broken down technological devices, and other used materials for my other consumer identity projects. The waste is abundant and never-ending, and as I continue this venture, I have noticed the shortened life span of these materials and the way in which mass-produced goods are lacking quality for their retail value as a way to sustain the economic stature of these greedy corporations. The entire thing is disheartening; American’s continue to feel this need to buy and companies will continue to make and sell them these shitty products. Especially in our country’s economic struggles, I feel sometimes trapped myself. It almost seems inescapable within the backdrop of America’s capitalist system.
Help me collect!
If you are in the Las Vegas area or live in the Las Vegas area, I am collecting women’s clothing or any unwanted technology devices (whether it is household appliances, cellular devices, computers.. pretty much anything!)
Don’t let it go to the dump, recycle!
contact me at: erijking@gmail.com
