Summer/Fall 2012 Download PDF - The Studio Museum in Harlem

Summer/Fall 2012 66In Conversation:Naima J. Keithand JohnOutterbridgeAssistant Curator Naima J. Keith sits down with artistJohn Outterbridge to discuss his most recent installationat the Studio Museum in Harlem, The Rag Factory II,featured in Shift: Projects | Perspectives | Directions. This isan edited and condensed excerpt from the conversation.Shift: Projects | Perspectives | Directions(installation view), 2012.Photo: Adam ReichNaima J. Keith: Since the 1960s,you have remained a seminal figurein the Los Angeles AssemblageMovement, creating profoundlypoetic work often from discardedmaterials, including trash, rubber,burlap, nails, broken glass, rustedsteel and hair. But you have alwaysreferred to yourself as a painter andsculptor who, for the last severalyears, has focused on shaping thingsout of so many materials. The RagFactory II, for example, is madecompletely of rags. Can you tell mea bit more about your process? Whatspawned the interest in rags at thispoint in your career?John Outterbridge: This particularprocess and the use of cast-off materialis part of my life. I’ve always felt thatway about materials at large. And thisparticular narrative or focus is on theuse of rag stuff. I was fortunate enoughto find a rag factory in downtown LosAngeles in the art district that wasquite large. I got some rags from thatsource, but I always have some ragsaround. I decided to utilize those ragsin this piece. The cast-off material hasbeen around, in use, for most of mylife, you dig? For a long time. It didn’tjust happen overnight and yesterday.This is a long journey.Most of the rags came from LosAngeles area. You didn’t always haveto pay for those things and I got thoserags in the fashion district of LosAngeles. Most of those rags and thecolors say a lot about where they camefrom, and about seasons and fashion.I was very interested in how long wehave depended on fabric as people