Review: Anne Elizabeth Moore @ MCA 12x12

"For her UBS 12x12 presentation, Moore presents 'Garment Work,' a durational collective performance project in which the artist and visitors deconstruct a pair of jeans. Over the course of the month, in twice-weekly performance/workshop/discussions, Moore creates connections between Cambodia's garment manufacturing industry, where the jeans were made, and Michigan Avenue, where the jeans were purchased,"[1]


Above: Moore's Beautiful Clothing Company, Inc. labor roster, providing a visual record of audience participation in garment deconstruction

Across Chicago, fiber-based group works involving performance and installation have been organized by female leads on a regular if not frequent basis.


Above: Denim fabric subject to deconstruction

Within the not-too-distant past, the city's commercial, storefront, and not-for-profit spaces have hosted at least: Sheila Pepe at "he said she said" in April of 2011;[2] Anne Wilson at Rhona Hoffman Gallery in January of 2011 & 2008;[3] and Julia Sherman at Swimming Pool Project Space in January of 2010.[4]


Above: Individual fibers of cloth being separated

Similar to the temporary environments crafted by the aforementioned artists, Anne Elizabeth Moore's program at the Museum of Contemporary Art provides a hub of activity around which spatial and labor concerns are available for parallel consideration.


Above: Fibers sorted according to color/type

Here, as Pepe and Sherman before her, Moore relies heavily upon audience engagement: work, within the context of the piece, is available--in quantity, in skill, and in intent--as it's given at random by museum visitors.


Above: Moore in background; "Beautiful Clothing" workers in foreground

While Moore has carefully built a conceptual framework, and even an organizational structure: "Beautiful Clothing Company, Inc.," the output, or product, of the undertaking is not able to be entirely predetermined.


Above: Moore hanging documentation of the blue jeans' path of travel through the real world economy

Beautiful Clothing's "employees," in distinction to their factory-working counterparts in SE Asia, enjoy the ability to reflect upon the nature of their undertaking, collectively, in the relative comfort of the UBS 12x12 gallery space; the piece depends upon such awareness and exchange.


Above: The pants' price tag in foreground

"Garment Work," being truly social art, succeeds or fails on its own terms according to the changes in human thought and/or action which follow in the wake of its finite being.


Above: Center of gallery space; site of work activity

The larger (meta) questions raised by Moore's piece are found to spring from social art's relationship to the museum particularly and the "direction" of contemporary art generally.


Above: Waist of denim jeans, as seen in background of previous image

Moore's candor and good cause give little reason to be doubted, wherein lies the problem: Do we accept that value in art is synonymous with efficacy in the service of that which we presuppose to be just?


Above: Moore's labor roster for Beautiful Clothing Company, Inc.


Above: MCA "Garment Work" wall label

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Notes:

[1] http://www.mcachicago.org/exhibitions/exh_detail.php?id=283

[2] Sheila Pepe @ he said she said:

Above: "Common Sense" (Chicago)
April 9 - May 14, 2011
"he said she said"
831 South Grove Avenue
Oak Park, IL 60304
http://hesaid-shesaid.us

[3] Anne Wilson @ Rhona Hoffman:

Above: "Blonde"
January 14 — February 18, 2011
Rhona Hoffman Gallery
118 North Peoria Street
Chicago, Illinois 60607
http://www.rhoffmangallery.com

Anne Wilson @ Rhona Hoffman:

Above: "Wind-Up" after "Walking the Warp"
Rhona Hoffman Gallery
January 25 - March 1, 2008
118 North Peoria Street
Chicago, Illinois 60607
http://www.rhoffmangallery.com

[4] Julia Sherman @ Swimming Pool Project Space:

Above: "Room-A-Loom"
January 24 - February 21, 2010
Swimming Pool Project Space
2858 W. Montrose,
Chicago, IL 60618
http://www.swimmingpoolprojectspace.com

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Full "Garment Work" performance schedule:
- Friday, August 5, 2011:
"First Friday" opening
- Saturday, August 6, 2011:
11:00AM-12:30PM and 1:30PM-3:00PM
- Saturday, August 13,2011:
11:00AM-12:30PM and 1:30PM-3:00PM
- Tuesday, August 16, 2011:
5:30PM-7:30PM
- Saturday, August 20, 2011:
11:00AM-12:30PM and 1:30PM-3:00PM
- Tuesday, August 23, 2011:
5:30PM-7:30PM
- Saturday, August 27, 2011:
11:00AM-12:30PM and 1:30PM-3:00PM

Anne Elizabeth Moore @ MCA
"Garment Work"
Photographed 7:15PM-8:00PM
Tuesday, August 16, 2011
UBS 12 × 12: New Artists/New Work
Museum of Contemporary Art
220 East Chicago Avenue,
Chicago, IL 60611
*Free admission for IL residents on Tuesday*
Tuesday hours: 10:00AM–8:00PM
312.280.2660
http://www.mcachicago.org/exhibitions/exh_detail.php?id=283
http://anneelizabethmoore.com
http://twitter.com/mcachicago

See also Anne Elizabeth Moore interviewed by Amy Cavanaugh, August 8, 2011:
http://chicago.cbslocal.com/top-lists/anne-elizabeth-moore-garment-work/

- Paul Germanos