Coverings - 2025
Covering S
2025
Plastic bags, laser-cut acrylic
19 x 21 in
Coverings: An Exploration of Plastic, Fashion, and Humanity examines the ways in which humanity has covered itself in plastic through the acceleration of fast fashion trends.
The show reimagines our clothes and accessories as "coverings," created with discarded materials, symbolizing a challenge against the fashion industry's wastefulness.
Threads of Blood
2025
Fabrics, red sewing thread, clothing, and linen tags
34 x 15 inches
This inversion of function is central to the piece Threads of Blood, which exposes the hidden cost of disposable fashion.
In the 2015 documentary The True Cost, garment workers from the developing world expressed that the low prices of fast fashion are made possible only through their exploitation and suffering. As director Andrew Morgan put it: "Someone, somewhere, is paying the true cost" – often with their health, dignity, and even their lives.
The garments and accessories featured in Coverings are modeled by laser-cut images of some of the program's participants, intentionally centering their presence in dialogue with the artwork.
The exhibition also serves as a metaphor for covering in the sense of providing support, dignity, and opportunity. By hiring underserved individuals as artist assistants, The Gleaning Project creates a form of social "covering" – offering work, skill-building, and visibility to those on the margins.
Covering E
2025
Plastic bags, laser-cut acrylic
19 x 21 inches
Covering K
2025
Plastic bags, laser-cut acrylic
24 x 21 inches
Covering I
2025
Plastic bags, laser-cut acrylic
28 x 21 inches
Reminiscence
2025
Mixed fibers
16 x 30 inches
Reminiscence speaks to the quiet persistence of memory. This piece offers a softer reckoning—a tactile map of the past folded into the present. Each strand, each worn fiber, carries the imprint of a gesture, a life, a choice
As we move toward change, Reminiscence reminds us that the path forward is stitched through the past. Transformation is not a clean break but a layering of histories, mistakes, resilience, and care. What we discard does not disappear; it gathers, softens, waits to be reworked into something new.
Handcrafted from discarded plastic bags, this unique collection of purses transform waste into wearable art. A crocheted mesh body is paired with a soft cotton lining and a sturdy metal frame, joined by a cotton yarn handle. Both functional and symbolic, these pieces reflect Coverings’ exploration of sustainability, identity, and the power of handcraft to reshape the materials—and meanings—we carry.
Purses
2025
Cotton yarn, plastic, metal handle, fabric
12 x 15 inches
Alongside the Exhibition's overarching critique of extractive systems, we also tap into hope.
The window installation Totem stands as a reminder of our collective stories, our roots, and our ability to return to sustainable practices. It calls on us to reclaim our humanity, weaving a future where innovation and responsibility coexist.
This Exhibition is not just about what we wear – it is about what we value, what we discard, and what we choose to recover.
Coverings is on view at Neighbor, 176 9th Ave, from June 5th through June 30th, 2025.
