Blonde Tresses at the Park Avenue Armory

MK Guth, Ties of Protection and Safekeeping 2007-08.

The Park Avenue Armory portion of the Whitney Biennial just closed this past Sunday. In great part dedicated to the more ephemeral and time-based medium of performance art, it included the work of the Portland artist MK Guth. Previously New York–based and the founder of the Red Shoe Delivery Service (the art collaborative that Fashion Projects interviewed in the first issue), MK Guth contributed an interactive sculpture to the biennial show.

The piece started by asking viewers what they felt was worth protecting. The answers were then written on strips of red flannel and woven into an ever-growing braid made of artificial hair, which the audience braided together with the artist. The day I visited the Armory, the performance had come to a close and the braids draped the dark-lit wood paneled rooms of the Armory, where the performance had taken place. Yet some of the artificial hair was left in an adjacent room together with pieces of red felts—the remnants contributing to the melancholic and morbid feeling conveyed by the braided blonde tresses.

Francesca

Tamy Ben-Tor at Zach Feuer

The Israeli, New York-based, performance artist Tamy Ben-Tor is having her second solo show at the Zach Feuer Gallery in Chelsea. Concomitantly with the exhibition opening, the artist will perform a solo work-in-progress at the Kitchen on the evenings of March 28 and 29.

Titled "Judensau"—a historically-laden anti-semitic image dating back to the Middle Ages—the piece will continue Ben Tor’s exploration of different persona, which in her absurdist performance are meant to represent "embodiments of non-existing entities."

In Ben Tor's own words: "The characters I portray are not real. However they are specific. I don’t speak about politics; I use them to invoke feeling just as I speak in different languages in order to reach a nonsensical outcome. This is because it is only through the specific and descriptive that a tension with the abstract can be formed.”

For more information, visit Zach Feur Gallery and the Kitchen.

Cloak and Dagger: Design Espionage

Printer's Sample Book, American, 1870, from the Multiple Choice Exhibition, currently on view

Tonight (Tuesday March 18) at Cooper-Hewitt:

Cloak and Dagger: Design Espionage

"In past centuries sample books served to record patterns and motifs used in decorative arts and were carefully guarded by manufacturers against espionage attempts from competitors. In this panel, held in conjunction with Multiple Choice: From Sample to Product. Cooper-Hewitt invites you to join intellectual property lawyer Harley Lewin, and Susan Posen, CEO of Zac Posen, in a conversation with Eric Wilson of The New York Times on how designers strive to protect their work in a knock-off culture."

The event takes place at 6: 30 Members and students with valid ID: $5; non-Members: $10.

Great Designers Symposium at FIT

The designer Jean Patou

Don’t miss the Museum of the Fashion Institute of Technology’s Symposium that will take place Friday March 14 and 15 from 9:30am to 5pm in the Haft Auditorium. Dedicated to the broad concept of “great designers,” it includes an impressive array of speakers including Caroline Evans (who will present her recent research on Patou) and Hamish Bowles (who will speak on Molyneux). On Friday, two of the most interesting New York designers, Marya Cornejo and Isabel Toledo, will also be speaking about their own work. The next day presents an equally interesting roster with Kaat Debo (artistic director of the in Antwerp) speaking about Raf Simons and men’s fashion as well as Jessica Glasscock, who will discuss the work of Stephan Sprouse, on whom she is curating an exhibit for Deitch Projects. Andrew Bolton will be in conversation with Anna Sui, while the design duo Boudicca is also scheduled to speak.

UPDATE: Word is, Hamish Bowles has been moved to Saturday, 2 pm. Assistant Curator of Accessories Clare Sauro will change places, and speak tomorrow instead on shoe designer Christian Louboutin (who has an enjoyable exhibition that just opened at FIT, curated by the FIT graduate students in the Fashion and Textile Studies Program).

Nieves Library at Ooga Booga

The LA concept store and art space Ooga Booga is presenting a one-month exhibibition of artists' books and zines published by the Swiss publisher Nieves. Alongside books and zines by the Zurich-based publisher in the main shop, there will be a zine reading room in a temporary annex across the hall, where one can find rare and out-of-print titles by many Nieves-related artists. The exhibition, which opens Thursday March 6th, will be open through April 3rd.

While there, don't forget to look through Ooga Booga's otherwise vast collection of rare fashion and art books and zines, as well as their great selection of clothes and accessories by Susan Cianciolo, Bless, Opening Ceremony and many others.

Francesca