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April Issue 2010
The Art Institute
of Charleston in Charleston, SC, Offers Works by Julie Klaper
& Students of AIC
The Art Institute of Charleston in Charleston, SC, is presenting, The Fascinating "Fasten"ating Fashion Exhibit, featuring works by Julie Klaper along with fashion & retail management students at AIC, on view through May 8, 2010.
As the presenting sponsor
of this year's Charleston Fashion Week, and sponsor of The Emerging
Designer Competition: Southeast, it is appropriate that The Art
Institute of Charleston ring in the celebration with a fashionable
and thought provoking art exhibit.
Students under the guidance of Lynne Riding, an artist in her
own right, who is the academic director of the fashion & retail
management department, along with award- winning young designer
Ashley Reid, a faculty member at The Art Institute of Charleston,
and Kimberly McHenry Williams, also a faculty member at The Art
Institute of Charleston, have been working with their students
to produce impressive results complementing the work of Julie
Klaper.
"Working with an outside artist as talented as Julie Klaper
challenges our fashion & retail management students to raise
the bar. It has been a treat watching the students play off of
Klaper's work to create a thought provoking and visually stimulating
show," says Riding.
In one section of the exhibit, the students' work will relate
the history of fashion to the work of Klaper. Comparison
and discussion is opened as to the subtle, and, not-so-subtle,
meaning of certain styles, details and fashions found throughout
history.
Klaper says, "Women's
clothing sends a sexual message in many different ways.
The obvious ones are how short a skirt is or the transparency
of the material. But the fasteners are a bit more complex, serving
a much needed function while communicating, in a more subtle manner,
a different meaning."
Klaper continues to say that buttons, snaps and zippers have been
around for hundreds of years and, in some instances, have been
improved upon to the point of obsolescence. But her work focuses
on the realization that they have not been replaced because of
what they represent, beyond their utilitarian function. "Unlike
men's clothing, there is a sexual overtone to these devices that
don't just secure women's clothing but adorn it." Klaper
continues and surmises that even when the fasteners are not serving
the purpose for which they were created, as a design element,
they communicate the same message.
The Art Institute of
Charleston, a branch of The Art Institute of Atlanta, is one of
The Art Institutes, a system of over 45 schools located throughout
North America, and is centrally located in downtown Charleston
with the main campus at 24 North Market Street, and a satellite
campus at Fountain Walk on Charleston's harbor front at 360 Concord
Street. The college offers degree programs in Culinary Arts;
Wine, Spirits & Beverage Management; Graphic Design;
Interior Design; Web Design & Interactive Media; Photographic
Imaging; Fashion & Retail Management and Digital Filmmaking
& Video Production.
For further information check our SC Institutional Gallery
listings, call Paige Crone, Public Relations Director at 843/343-1223
or visit (www.artinstitutes.edu/charleston).
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