Wear It Well

Comments (0) By Hiya Swanhuyser Wednesday, Jun 23 2010

We love/hate it when some art thing is too complicated for us to understand. “The Dresses/Objects Project” is definitely inspired by Gertrude Stein’s masterpiece of Modernist “verse,” Tender Buttons. But if you know Stein, you know that doesn’t tell you jack about what might happen when you try to look at the art exhibit itself, which isn’t really an art exhibit. Stein: “The change of color is likely and a difference a very little difference is prepared. Sugar is not a vegetable. Callous is something that hardening leaves behind what will be soft if there is a genuine interest in there being present as many girls as men …” The meaning of words didn’t interest her as much as the rhythm and sound of words — which is genius, but doesn’t tell you jack about what you might see at an art exhibit. At “Dresses/Objects,” curator (maybe) Katrina Rodabaugh corrals (no) some 30 creative women (cool). Some, like EmSpace company, dance on June 25 and 26; some make dresses, some of which hang on mannequins around the gallery; some bring letterpress prints and photography to hang on the walls; and at least one performs poetry on July 18.