Blue Space
Chris Larson
The Residue of Labor is an archival body of work that examines intensive labor through the conduit of an abandoned garment factory in rural Tennessee. As garment labor became predominantly outsourced in the late 90s, work was unceremoniously taken from rural communities and a history of human labor left behind. Through the curation of objects recovered from the factory and objects fabricated in his studio, Larson creates a narrative out of the remains of what was once a booming industrial operation. Individual personhood begins to surface from the details as Larson interrelates the residue of life in the factory.
Using industrial garment thread recovered from the abandoned factory, Larson’s Thread Works Series (2020-22) reimagines the product of the thread from functional garments to paintings, creating beauty out of discarded materials. Larson began by building a foot treadle-operated machine to wrap canvases vertically in thread with the precision of high technology and the randomness of human-generated frequency. Each individual piece is titled after the color code found on the bottom of a spool of thread. So Blue (2021) incorporates 13 miles of various blue spools of industrial garment thread.
Using industrial garment thread recovered from the abandoned factory, Larson’s Thread Works Series (2020-22) reimagines the product of the thread from functional garments to paintings, creating beauty out of discarded materials. Larson began by building a foot treadle-operated machine to wrap canvases vertically in thread with the precision of high technology and the randomness of human-generated frequency. Each individual piece is titled after the color code found on the bottom of a spool of thread. So Blue (2021) incorporates 13 miles of various blue spools of industrial garment thread.
So Blue, 2021
found Ralph Lauren industrial garment thread on canvas
48 x 96 x 3 1/2 in 121.9 x 243.8 x 8.9 cm
found Ralph Lauren industrial garment thread on canvas
48 x 96 x 3 1/2 in 121.9 x 243.8 x 8.9 cm
