Eric was my TA in Art History. Who knew that while he was attending class, he was also going through the process of his latest artwork? More on that later.
Eric Johanni is Master's of Fine Arts candidate at Syracuse University and his work explores the relationship of fabric and memory. “We all have fabric. It’s such an essential component of life, from the time you’re born until the time you’re put into the ground, you’re wrapped in fabric. Whether you’re poor or wealthy, you still have fabric.”
Beginnings
Eric's exploration of fabric began with his mother. In Fabricated Memories, he takes his deceased mother's clothing and turns it into pillows with the image of his family printed in the front. It was an emotionally charged project, says Eric. Creating Fabricated Memories meant taking his mother's clothing and physically taking them apart. “When you cut the fabric, there’s no return.” The result is a poignant look at a family's past.
Fabricated Memories by Eric Johanni. Pieces of his mother's clothing on the back with family photos on the front.
In his December project, he turns the tables around by assigning a fabric to a memory. For this, Eric digs into his own wardrobe and creates art out of it. Each day of December, Eric wears a combination of clothing out of which a 4-inch swatch of cloth is cut out and the pieces of clothing subsequently repaired.
The December Project. Swatches of cloth tell when this shirt was worn, with what other items of clothing.
“Every day for the month of December has a unique fabric and thread to mark that day.” These square pieces of cloth are then sewn together to form a calendar, not filled with dates and days, but swatches of memory. He then simulates these swatches in white muslin and creates minimalist portraits of each day.
The December Project. Eric simulates the pattern of his clothing on white muslin to make this minimalist portrait to remember the day he wore this combination.
Current explorations
But Eric doesn't stop there. Here's where we get to the project I was talking about. In an outlandish move that only artists can think of, Eric decided to take himself and his wardrobe and turn it into a work of art. Dubbed, The Formula, Eric asks, "Can I make each day unique through my clothing?"
The goal? To wear something different everyday for an entire year. Eric created a formula for his work, assigning a point system to help him dress each day. The lower body represents the month and the upper body represents the day and the date. Each day he takes a photo and journals his experience.
“It altered the way I look at clothing and fabric. It became a luxury to pick your own clothes everyday,” says Eric. Though still three months away from his end date, Eric has come to realize that his project isn't turning out the way he thought it would. “It’s completely contradictory to what the original intent was (to make each day unique) in that my wardrobe, because of the formula has become so homogenized that I actually remember fewer dates, than if I were selecting.”
“It altered the way I look at clothing and fabric. It became a luxury to pick your own clothes everyday,” says Eric. Though still three months away from his end date, Eric has come to realize that his project isn't turning out the way he thought it would. “It’s completely contradictory to what the original intent was (to make each day unique) in that my wardrobe, because of the formula has become so homogenized that I actually remember fewer dates, than if I were selecting.”
Now, when Eric walks into a store or looks at his wardrobe, he doesn't see white shirts and blue jeans, he sees his formula--but he also sees the small memories that are associated with the fabric he wears day in and out.
Little stains become remnants of past laundering mistakes or perhaps even first date wine stains. “What I started looking at is not that it’s just one event, but the fact that they live a life in themselves. As they’re worn, they’re like a canvas. They keep acquiring these marks and each mark tells a little bit more about the story.” A story each of us lives everyday.
Retired shirts. Eric prints the formula on his shirt and retires them from service. He shows these pieces of fabric as canvases on which memories are made.
See more of Eric at www.ejohanni.com.
To learn more about his formula, go to ejohanni.blogspot.com
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