Post War Blues

Post War Blues 
a community based art installation
by Isabelle Garbani

September 26, 2015 - March 2, 2016

Brooklyn Army Terminal
Building B Atrium
140 58th Street
Brooklyn, NY 11220 A lot of our inventions come from the war effort and the defense budget. Post War Blues addresses the issue of what happens to war innovations after a conflict is over and the possibility of innovating without violence or the threat of violence.

 

A ribbon of plastic flowers, crocheted and knitted from recycled plastic bags, bursts out of the old train car that sits inside the Brooklyn Army Terminal building. The flowers rise and slowly fall on the tracks in undulating waves, all the way to the end of the building atrium.

 

This project is a community based art installation: the majority of the flowers will be created by people from the surrounding communities and beyond, illustrating that in spite of our differences, we can work together and make something meaningful and beautiful for peace.

Starting in 2015, Isabelle will a create an art club in the Brooklyn Army Terminal which will meet every month to collect plastic shopping bags, make yarn, learn to knit and crochet, and make the individual flowers for the final installation. I am working with Chashama, a New York based non-profit, and the building's management (NYC-EDC) to reach out to the tenants of the Brooklyn Army Terminal, and encourage their workforce to participate in the project. Isabelle is also working with the local libraries of Bay Ridge and Sunset Park to conduct regular monthly art clubs in their meeting rooms. You do not have to live in Brooklyn to participate.

Post War Blues is presented in partnership with chashama, and made possible in part with funds from the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Andrew Cuomo and the New York State Legislature, and by the Greater New York Arts Development Fund of the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, administered by Brooklyn Arts Council (BAC).

For more information and to see how you can participate please go to http://crochetchallenge.com!

Artist Bio

After working for 7 years as a commercial Digital Artist, Isabelle returned to graduate school where she received an MFA in sculpture from the New York Academy of Art in 2004. She now works in mixed media, using feminine crafts such as knitting, crochet and lace with recycled materials.

Isabelle Garbani has exhibited extensively in the New York metropolitan area and the Northeast. Among her exhibitions are Arte! Beaux-Arts! Kunst! at Payne Gallery in PA in 2007, the Third Annual Summer Exhibition at the New York Academy of Art in 2009, and Younger Than Moses at the Benrimon Gallery in New York City in 2010. She had her first solo exhibit in 2008 at the Earlville Opera House and my second in 2011 at BoxHeart Gallery in Pittsburgh.

Among her installations are Knit for Trees on Governors Island in New York City in 2011, Knit for Trees in Heckscher Park in Huntington, Long Island in 2012, Forces of Nature at the Carving and Sculpture Center in Vermont in 2011, and Invasive Species for Open Source Gallery in 2011 in Brooklyn. She was awarded an artist residency for the Cheng-Long International Environmental Art Project in Taiwan in 2012, where she exhibited Invasive Species. Upon my return to the US, she was awarded a studio residency with Chashama in Brooklyn.