(SBA) - The public is invited to experience Razzle Dazzle, an ambitious art installation by New York-based artist Amanda Browder, premiering August 31-September 1, 2024. A massive community-based art that began 18-months ago with an invitation: Please donate your unused fabric. And, if you have time, sit down and help us sew what will become a massive and unforgettable artwork.
That invitation was answered by hundreds of volunteers who donated thousands of hours to cut, pin, and sew fabric at Public Sewing Days here at the Art Center and at other Siouxland locations, including local libraries, breweries, schools, recreational centers, and businesses. The resulting temporary public art installation will cover large sections of the Sioux City Art Center and its Gilchrist Learning Center buildings, temporarily transforming our downtown campus.
Amanda is the creative force behind this work, but it is her generous spirit and mobile studio format which makes her practice unique. Razzle Dazzle is very much a contemporary artwork that challenges assumptions about materials, public art, and museum display. But equally important is that it is rooted in collaborative folk-art traditions that are not acknowledged as fine art and are, oftentimes, underappreciated. It is because of her process and use of donated materials that anyone who contributed even a small amount of time and materials, can look at Razzle Dazzle and say, “I did that.”
Razzle Dazzle is an important project because it elevates the scale and impact of fabric to the monumental level, challenging the tight geometry of brick and glass on the Art Center and accentuating the clean contemporary aesthetic of the Gilchrist Learning Center. While Razzle Dazzle is on view, visitors will see the Art Center, therefore the arts in general, with fresh eyes.
When describing the effect of her work, Browder says, “It’s easy to take buildings for granted, especially when you're driving past. If you add something that's visually very bright and eye-catching, it starts making you more aware of what you see on a regular basis. It changes people’s whole concept of their daily environment. When the work is gone, the building’s still there but it seems different—it becomes charged. My bright, colorful pieces energize the buildings even after the work is gone.”
Amanda Browder received an MFA/MA from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and taught at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. She currently lives in Brooklyn and has produced over 25 large-scale fabric installations all around the world. Amplifying multiple voices, she collaborates with local community groups and sources her textiles from local donations.
Amanda Browder: Razzle Dazzle is organized by Sioux City Art Center Curator Chistopher Atkins. It is supported, in part, by grants from the National Endowment for the Arts, Elizabeth Firestone Graham Foundation, Gilchrist Foundation, the Art Center Association of Sioux City, Charese Yanney, State Steel, Knoepfler Chevrolet, Honeysuckle Hollow.
The exhibition will remain on display through October 31, 2024.
