For Instance, Amie and Toni James Gallery, Graduate Center, City University of New York, NY 2008

Custom-fabricated two-sided velour curtains, hanging tracks and hardware.

“For Instance”, is a site-project for the Amie and Toni James Gallery at the City University of New York Graduate Center. The street-level gallery space is housed in a former “B. Altman'' department store on the corner of 35th Street and Fifth Avenue. Wraparound windows render the space transparent, connecting the corner gallery and the street in a potential dynamic of active viewing. The street seemed as much a gallery framed by the windows as the gallery is, as a stage of display. In considering the conventions of performance and theatricality of “stage”, I decided to make theatrical drapes (signifying a stage), as the artwork itself. Following the geometry of the gallery floor plan, drapes were fabricated and hung on an enclosed two-row track system. Each of the nine drapes is indexed to a planar surface of wall/window interfacing with the street. The panels are double-sided, using two different colors of velour. They are arranged with frequent openings, allowing for passage and sightlines.