Rags & Rinds
press release
Rags & Rinds
Works by Patrice Renee Washington
Opening Friday, Oct 21, 7-10pm
Oct 21 – Dec 4, 2016
Sat & Sun 1-6pm
The title, Rags and Rinds, references the falsely inclusionary American myth, “Rags to Riches”, where one rises from the belly of poverty to a status of wealth, and presumably happiness — and rinds, to the thick outer layer of protection that foods often possess, and the leftover trash that permeates. The show creates alikeness between these ideas, through the unfurling of what they may represent.
Undulating forms channel the malleability of objects as they hover between mush and permanence, fighting to affirm themselves in a sometimes hindering and unsavory environment. Structural design elements become both stand-ins for an architecture that doesn’t yet exist, and representations for fleeting moments of strength. The sculptures repeatedly use food as a proxy for origin, examining how discriminating taste can actually be—
Hot fried pies, I thought sadly, moving away. I would probably have indigestion if I ate one- now that I no longer felt ashamed of the things I had always loved, I probably could no longer digest very many of them. What and how much had I lost by trying to do only what was expected of me instead of what I myself had wished to do? –Invisible Man, Ralph Ellison
///////////////////////
Patrice Renee Washington (b. 1987, Chicago, IL) lives and works in Queens, New York. She received her B.F.A from Metropolitan State University of Denver (2011), and M.F.A in Visual Arts from Columbia University (2014). Her recent exhibitions include Sculpture Center (2016), Central Park Gallery (2016), Blackburn 20|20 (2014), and MoCADA (2014). She has completed residencies at The Museum of Arts and Design (2016), Anderson Ranch Arts Center (2015) and Vermont Studio Center (2014).
