Meet Ruby Chishti, a 2024 Joan Mitchell Fellow.
Chishti writes: “My exploration revolves around the melding of found garments and social memory, intimately engaging with ‘fashion detritus’ to spark conversations about the passage of time and collective experiences of love, loss, and being human. I dismantle unknown people’s clothing, re-figure, and hand-sew layers creating evocative structures that prompt reflections on our emotional and physical connections to architecture, reminiscent of the sedimentation of history and the geological phenomena of ‘deep time’ documented in layers of rocks deposited over billions of years.”
Chishti received her formal education from the National College of Arts in Lahore, Pakistan, and is now based in New York City. Her art is characterized by haunting and enigmatic forms that explore the transformation of fabric from discarded mass-produced clothing into the reconstruction filaments of artistic imagination. Chishti’s work has been exhibited at the Asia Society Museum, New York; the Queens Museum, Queens, NY; Rossi & Rossi, Hong Kong; Aicon Contemporary, New York; Vadehra Art Gallery, New Delhi; and Canvas Gallery, Karachi. Learn more about her work at @rubychishti and rubychishti.com.
Pictured here:
1: Ruby Chishti, An Intangible Sanctuary Of Ocean And Stars II, 2018. Mens 1940’s wool overcoat, tricycle (hidden), scrapes of fabric, thread, wood, plaster, metal wire, flocking powder, paint, adhesive, 101 x 83 x 16 inches.
2: Ruby Chishti, Stratigraphy Of Cloth, 2023. Recycled cloth, wood, 54 x 36 x 3 1/2 inches.
3: Ruby Chishti, All Her Calves Were Slaughtered, 2022. Cast plaster, recycled cloth, polyester, thread, gold leaf, paint, 5 1⁄2 x 15 x 11 inches.
4: Ruby Chishti, In The City Of Children (Audiovisual), 2024. Recycled clothing, doll’s clothing, wire mesh, pieces of 1/8” thick cut stained Sintra sheet, 69 x 72 x 11 inches.
5: Ruby Chishti
