These projects use public participation to accomplish social justice and community building goals and often aim for audiences beyond the monied art world. DNA of Blue certainly fits this description.
Many of my other projects have created large walk-through installations that engage viewers in contemporary issues. See these projects on my website www.margaretparkerstudio.com
Here's my latest piece.
a Mer I cans
16 wood panels wrapped with pieces from cotton T-shirts. 2012
I was interested in how we Americans cross tribes, castes, class, age, gender, religion and place to define our own individuality and personhood. Signals are often printed right on our clothing to tell total strangers who we are and what we stand for, at least for that day. We shed the T-shirts like a second skin. I collect T-shirts to use as found objects in art projects both large and small.
We're becoming more racially mixed and that means crossing old boundaries. Once common ideals like "patriotism" have become loaded with subtext. 4 different shirts are used, each wrapped in different techniques. Weaving, knotting, binding the corners, using the circle of the neck are followed through the 16 pieces in as many ways as possible.
These pieces explore Americans' core belief in individualism.
