Minneapolis MNPortland OR 2001

The Exchange is like a pen pal system but instead of sending letters we send clothes and instead of writing we are sewing.

Helena first proposed the idea to Tanya Sakurai in Portland, OR as a way to connect two communities of makers who shared an interest in recycling and refashioning second hand garments. Helena was leading a sewing workshop at Soo Visual Arts in Minneapolis at the time and used that as a platform to launch from. Tanya used Seaplane as her home-base. They each gathered 15 or so people to contribute a piece of clothing, packaged it up, and made the swap. The clothing was redistributed to participants in the sister city and tagged with the original owner's name and email address (in case the maker's wanted to communicate with each other). Participants had about a month to cut things up, put them back together and embellish to varying degrees.

When the deadline came, the finished garments were collected and sent back to their cities of origin. It was very exciting to see the broad range of skills employed and different ways each person had approached the task at hand. Some participants were experts when it came to sewing while others had not sewn much before and came up with less conventional ways of remaking. There were informal exhibitions of the finished work in both cities where makers were able to see the results of the exchange and pick up their newly transformed garments.

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Minneapolis MNNew York NY 2002

Due to the success and enthusiasm of the first exchange, Helena decided to organize another, this time with NY as the sister city. She was introduced to Callie Janoff of the Church of Craft who signed on as the NY coordinator. The second time around participants payed a registration fee to cover the cost of shipping and documentation. All garments were photographed in the before-and-after stages of the exchange, creating a comprehensive record of the process. In addition to their re-made garment, each participant received full color thumbnail images of all garments remade in the exchange as well as a larger photo documenting the garment they had remade.

"I find that this exchange brings out something unique in the participants. Each individual is given the challenge of making something for someone they don't know. There is a certain vulnerability in that as well as the sharing of skills and ideas. As an artist, I look to create social situations in which the participants feel they have given something authentic of themselves and received something imbued with generosity."
-Helena

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