Toilet Paper, Sewing Machines, Fabric, Thread, Motor, Trash Can
24/7 comments on the nature of the sweatshop and the exploitive aspects of globalization. This installation involves electric sewing machines which run continuously, sewing spools of multicolored thread onto endlessly unraveling rolls of toilet paper. The sewn paper piles up across the floor eventually filling the installation space. People walk through the sewn toilet paper strewn about, and thus become physically involved in the work – viscerally experiencing the continuous activity of sewing, the falling, and the piling up. This evokes a tension between playfulness and mad obsession. The continuous circular motion performed by the machines is compulsively repetitive and the linear process is exhaustingly endless. In motion they are by turns whimsical and infuriating, yet the results are delicate, fragile, colorful and infinite in their variability.
The Asian American Arts Centre, New York, 2002
The Clemente Soto Vélez Cultural Center, New York, 2001
