Omega Workshop: An Experiment in Counter-Fashion
January 26 – March 10, 2018
Elizabeth Foundation of the Arts,
323 W. 39th St., 2nd Floor
Elaine Byrne will take part in a project alongside Carmen Argote, Nick Cave, Sky Cubacub, Frau Fiber, Friends of Light, Abigail Glaum-Lathbury, Ruby Hoette, Project KOVR, Fawn Krieger, Jennifer Moon, Marloes ten Bhömer, Marisa Williamson, Andrea Zittel.
Opening Reception: Friday, January 26, 6 – 8 PM
Curated by: Rational Dress Society
Since the birth of fashion in the 19th century, counter-fashion—the practice of dressing to signal political solidarity—has been a site for critical intervention and utopian experimentation amongst activists, artists, and designers. Fashion is often mobilized to effect political change in moments of unrest. Omega, the last letter of the Greek alphabet, continues this tradition, suggesting clothing for “end times.” In Omega Workshop, our clothes are reconceived as an act of resistance in dark times—a collective reimagining of our relationship to dress.
For Omega Workshop, the members of the Rational Dress Society bring together artists, designers and activists who mobilize the language of clothing to critique the existing fashion system and offer alternatives. The exhibition will function as an archive and a laboratory, intended both as a tool to spur the production of future counter-fashion, and a resource for artists and designers interested in pursuing alternative dress. The run of Omega Workshop coincides with New York Fashion Week, offering a necessary counterpoint to the consumer-driven spectacle of the fast fashion in New York’s historical (and diminishing) Garment District.
