CHEAP

April 25, 2019

Solo exhibition at the Method Gallery in Seattle WA. The central theme of the CHEAP installation is to examine issues of consumerism and to incentivize new ways of looking at this loaded word. My intention with this work is to use the word cheap to address the environmental impact of disposable goods through the lens of the fast fashion industry. In this new work, the word cheap will be accompanied with a long list of synonyms set within a textile context. CHEAP is inspired by a billboard ad I witnessed in 2014, which depicted happy jumping children in bright coloured …

Signs of Change 2016

February 17, 2016

Signs of Change 2016 represents over 10 years of outdoor installations of words made from ice, which melt in the landscape as a poetic gesture towards the ephemerality of all nature. Like headlines conjured in a dream, they also herald in the new Anthropocene epoch, alerting us to the impact of humans on the environment. Unlike the loaded headlines in today’s media, the anticipated melting of the word acknowledges the absence of the word as it relates to the land. They act more like questions than certainty. They ask: what is the true cost of this View, who owns this …

A Dressing the Future Exhibition

September 11, 2015

New Exhibition and Art Residency “A Dressing the Future” Lycoming College Art Gallery Williamsport, Pennsylvania, USA September 11 to October 10, 2015 WILLIAMSPORT, Pa. – The Lycoming College Art Gallery will host Nicole Dextras’ “A-Dressing the Future” exhibit from Friday, Sept. 11 to Saturday, Oct. 10. A reception and gallery talk will be held and Sept. 25 at 25 W. Fourth Street, Williamsport from 4:30 to 6:30 p.m. These events are free and open to the public. In addition to having Dextras’ exhibit on display in the Lycoming College Art Gallery, she will also be an artist-in-residence at Lycoming College from …

Persephone and the Pomegrante

September 4, 2015

My latest Weedrobes garment is a fruit inspired two piece ensemble with a jacket made from pomegranate peels, which was inspired by my experience with this material while in Germany working on a dress for Weleda. The sleeveless jacket also contains details made with dried mushrooms and fish maw around the collar and armholes. The boots are made with pomegranate fruit leather on a cork platform heel. The skirt is woven with wool and Asian red dates. The concept for this project is based on the Greek Persephone myth where a young woman is abducted by Haides and brought to …

Street Intervention in Paris

June 18, 2015

After the Mobile Garden Dress was in the Jardins Jardin garden show in Paris, we headed to the district of Montreuil to do a small street intervention where the dress left all of her plants on the fence of an abandoned lot. This site has an interesting history as it is occupied by the metal shell of an old factory attributed to Gustave Eiffel. This beautiful structure has stood empty for many years and until recently it was a squatters camp for the nomadic Roma people. They were evicted by the municipality in 2013, after which a fence was erected. …

Weleda Video

October 21, 2014

The Weleda Company created a video about their new demonstration garden featuring the dresses I made for them. It is in German but it tells the story visually by showing the garden and how they process the Calendula plants onsite. I make a brief appearance at the end talking about the dresses I made, plus footage of the models wearing the Wild Rose Dress and the Pomegranate Dress.

MGD @ Eco Art Fest

September 13, 2014

The Mobile Garden Dress, part of the Urban Foragers series, participated in the first Eco Art Fest in Toronto during the summer of 2014. This new outdoor festival situated at Todmorden Mills is presented by No 9 Contemporary Art and the Environment, an arts organization that uses art and design to bring awareness to environmental concerns. It featured 8 public art installations hidden throughout the site, live music, homemade organic dishes, beer and wine. Plus Public Art tours, Watercolour Painting Workshops, Sustainable building workshops, and Clay Stein Making. The Mobile Garden Dress was on hand at all the events onsite and she …

Banff Winterjourney Art Residency

September 2, 2014

The Winterjourney art residency was held in at the Banff Centre for the Arts, in Banff AB from January 13 to February 21, 2014 and led by visiting artist Andreas Siqueland from Oslo. This residency permitted me to further my exploration of ice as a medium. I was happy to meet fellow artist Del Hiller who was also experimenting with making icicles and who graciously lent me some of his equipment to play with. It was also a time for me to try my hand at video, which i discovered i love as much a photography. It will be a …

Queens, meet the characters

November 8, 2013

Queens in the Desert series, Meet the Characters: Dame Dracaena La Puente, heiress to the great Shelly oil conglomerates is still seeking paydirt with her fashion savvy. Oblivious to the environmental repercussions of her family’s over one hundred year legacy of natural resources exploitation, she still dresses to the nines to impress. Even though the oil wells dried out years ago, her privileged LA upbringing entitles her to the finest luxuries. She favors the exotic pedigree of the Dracaena Draco leaf, often called Dragon’s Blood, a red resin extruded from the plant, which was used in ancient times as varnish, …

Queens in the Desert

November 7, 2013

I spent the last 3 weeks of my art residency at Cal State Fullerton creating new pieces at the Fullerton Arboretum. It was a fantastic experience for me because Chris Barnhill, Director of the Living Collections let me pick a large variety of plant material from their extensive botanical garden, tucked away on 26 acres within the university campus. It was my first time experimenting with tropical plants such as Palm trees and Citrus peels and i could have spent months there experimenting with new materials. I built 3 dresses based on the Little Green Dress Project, which were worn …

Ego Eco, environmental art for collective consciousness

November 6, 2013

The Ego Eco, environmental art for collective consciousness exhibition was curated by Allison Town and Emily Tyler for the Begovich Gallery at California State University Fullerton, which featured to work of 13 artists. I participated on a variety of levels during my 5 week residency there. During the first 2 weeks i completed the Traveling SeedBomb dress and assembled the Urban Foragers series and staged a public intervention which was filmed and shown along side the Traveling SeedBomb dress in the gallery. The 3 Urban Foragers were at the opening reception and i was also on hand to talk about …

Urban Forages, a communal meal

November 5, 2013

The Urban Foragers got together for the first time as a group to share a communal meal made from the food sources they each carry in their self sufficient dresses. The Mobile Garden Dress, aka Madame Jardin, The Nomadik Harvest Dress, aka Miss Cornucopia and the new kid on the block, The Traveling SeedBomb Dress, aka Agent SeedBomb got together at California State University Fullerton for the Ego Eco exhibition at the Begovich Gallery. The day began with the dresses walking around campus and interacting with students about sustainable food practices and also promoting the exhibiton. They then settled into …

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