Tools As Art: The Hechinger Collection

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Debra Chase, Hand-Tooled Jacket II, 1991
wire mesh, wire and aluminum
46 x 35 x 2 in.

Debra Chase was born in Rochester, New York, in 1954. She received a B.S. in studio art in 1977 from Nazareth College, Rochester, and an M.F.A. from the School for American Craftsmen, Rochester Institute of Technology, in 1982. Her sculpture has been exhibited at the American Craft Museum, New York, the Albright-Knox Gallery, Buffalo, and the Renwick Gallery, National Museum of American Art, Smithsonian Institution. Chase sees her wall-mounted "clothing" of wire mesh as visual metaphors for rites of passage, celebrations, and various social states. Beginning with kimono compositions that were two-dimensional and meant to be displayed on the wall, Chase moved to larger, more three-dimensional constructions, including a series of "Life Jackets" that refer to meaningful but fleeting experiences from daily life. The mesh screening allows the artist to work with light and transparency while it serves as the ground for decorative, rhythmic patterns of elements such as tools, leaves flowers and figures.