White Columns

Wilder Alison

14 Nov 2019 - 11 Jan 2020

Installation view
WILDER ALISON
14 Nov 2019 - 11 Jan 2020

White Columns is proud to present Slit Subjects, Wilder Alison's first solo exhibition in New York City. Slit Subjects comprises new paintings on fabric and paper, and an offsite performance by the artist's band N0 ST0NES on December 18th.

The works in Slit Subjects deploy Monique Wittig’s typographical rendering of the “split subject” as their guiding structure. Alison writes, “In the translation of Monique Wittig's The Lesbian Body, the I cannot be split, so it is italicized, and the slash appears instead in m/e and m/y. The graphic sum of these marks throughout the text is a conflation of the slash and the I, such that the I itself begins to enact a split.”

Starting with wool blankets, Alison repeatedly applies colors to the fabric via heated dye vats, imparting a concise palette of 4-6 colors per piece. After soaking in water, wool is folded and lowered into the dye baths, and the color is adjusted by dispensing tiny quantities of powdered dye into the bath. Each dye bath’s color reveals itself only when it stains the fabric, often taking shape with gentle waves that reflect the curvature of the dye pot. The dyed fabric is then cut, reconfigured, and sewn into new compositions whose seams evoke the diagonal I – or slash – in Wittig’s text.

N0 ST0NES, a music collaboration between Wilder Alison and composer and psychoanalyst Monroe Street will perform on Wednesday, December 18th at Honey's in Brooklyn (93 Scott Ave.) Following a reading by Mirene Arsanios. Doors are at 7pm and admission is free.

WILDER ALISON (b. 1986, Burlington, VT) is a New York City based interdisciplinary artist and a 2016 graduate of the Bard MFA Painting program. Recent solo shows include $PLIT $UBJECT at Marlboro College, VT and new wools at the Hudson D. Walker Gallery in Provincetown, MA. Alison has exhibited work with Rachel Uffner Gallery, NY, Cue Foundation, NY, 247365, NY and at A Public Space as part of the The Legacy Program at The Lighthouse Works, Fishers Island, NY.