Also on View: Jordan Brown, Unbuttoned
LocationT293, Rome
DateSeptember 21 - October 27
T293 is pleased to announce a new chapter of the "Also on view” program, introducing the work of Chicago-based artist Jordan Brown.
Influenced by story quilt traditions, fashion, cartoons, and collage, Brown's work involves using old clothing, fabric, text, and found objects to recreate scenes from their own queer Black mythology. The materials are primarily sourced from their personal archive, which includes outgrown clothing, old sketches, diary entries, as well as objects of memory, metaphors, or items recalled from dreams. These diverse materials continually transform, reappear, and combine to tell different stories. As Brown works with them, the materials accumulate their own memories and take on lives of their own. Their work serves as a way to grieve the past while also imagining future selves and unwritten stories. It embodies a quiet urgency, fluidity, and transience, serving as evidence of "what could have been" and "what could be."
The exhibition "Unbuttoned" envisions another realm that values fluidity and metamorphosis. Brown was drawn to checkered and plaid work shirts as they reminded them of kitchen decor, tablecloths, and napkins, but also carried associations with office attire and a "buttoned-up" posture, symbolizing a restrained, hard masculinity. Through their work, Brown has been exploring ways to soften and liberate their thinking from self-limiting belief systems, to move through the world more fully embodied and emotionally present. The pieces in "Unbuttoned" were created through improvisation with the shapes, colors, and textures found in these shirts, and were hand-sewn to compose the final compositions. Together, these artworks narrate a story of evolution, imagination, and intuition.
Jordan Brown (b. 1996, Silver Spring, MD) is an artist and writer based in Chicago, IL. He attended the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, graduating in 2013 with an MFA in Sculpture.
Influenced by story quilt traditions, fashion, cartoons, and collage, Brown's work involves using old clothing, fabric, text, and found objects to recreate scenes from their own queer Black mythology. The materials are primarily sourced from their personal archive, which includes outgrown clothing, old sketches, diary entries, as well as objects of memory, metaphors, or items recalled from dreams. These diverse materials continually transform, reappear, and combine to tell different stories. As Brown works with them, the materials accumulate their own memories and take on lives of their own. Their work serves as a way to grieve the past while also imagining future selves and unwritten stories. It embodies a quiet urgency, fluidity, and transience, serving as evidence of "what could have been" and "what could be."
The exhibition "Unbuttoned" envisions another realm that values fluidity and metamorphosis. Brown was drawn to checkered and plaid work shirts as they reminded them of kitchen decor, tablecloths, and napkins, but also carried associations with office attire and a "buttoned-up" posture, symbolizing a restrained, hard masculinity. Through their work, Brown has been exploring ways to soften and liberate their thinking from self-limiting belief systems, to move through the world more fully embodied and emotionally present. The pieces in "Unbuttoned" were created through improvisation with the shapes, colors, and textures found in these shirts, and were hand-sewn to compose the final compositions. Together, these artworks narrate a story of evolution, imagination, and intuition.
Jordan Brown (b. 1996, Silver Spring, MD) is an artist and writer based in Chicago, IL. He attended the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, graduating in 2013 with an MFA in Sculpture.