A few months back, we had the opportunity to showcase the work of Performance Artist and Designer, Lindsey Whittle. Her infusion of VELCRO® Brand products within her art is back again, most recently through collaboration with the Art Academy of Cincinnati, and Pones Inc.
Fittingly titled #connect, Whittle’ s latest masterpiece exhibition creates a “Velcro Vortex” with the ultimate goal of connecting people together, from the performers, fellow artists, dancers, to the exhibition attendees.
She explains that she began working with VELCRO® Brand hook and loop products because, “It was a material that literally connects things together. I make compositions from various VELCRO® Brand and VELTEX® products and then the pieces, which can attach and disconnect from each other over and over, and can be infinitely rearranged on a body, as a sculpture or in a space. As an artist I have to do a lot of planning to pull an entire exhibition together. What I love most about Velcro products is the quality. I can depend on them to hold up over time, and in my case really take a lot of abuse through performances but still look good.”
In addition to creating new pieces and designs, Lindsey also tried something new by working to incorporate dancers into her exhibition. Enter Pones Inc., a Cincinnati-based company that specializes in creating artistic opportunities through participatory and site-specific performances and other engaging forms of art.
Kim Popa, Lead Choreographer describes #connect and the Velcro Vortex experience as “unlike any other choreographic endeavor Pones Inc. has undertaken. The whole process [working with the pieces made from VELCRO® Brand products] was a laboratory for what could work when you might accidentally stick to yourself, another person, or a wall at any point in the dance. The product was freeing, hilarious, and beautiful.”
We think so, too.
#connect runs until December 6, 2014 and each Wednesday there will be a new installation rearrangement and the opportunity for viewers to present in the gallery. Additionally, there will be two performances by Cincinnati Artist, Steve Kemple in November called Interventions. Learn more about the exhibition here.
Photography by Dustin Schleibaum.
