Zero Waste & Upcycling: JRAT Pop-up at Bungee Space

February 20, 2024

Feb 22(Thu)-25(Sun), 2024

JRAT Pop-Up at Bungee

Thursday, Feb 22|6-9 PM

Opening Reception

Janelle Abbott in conversation with Avery Trufelman of the “Articles of Interest” podcast（7PM）

Janelle Abbott (JRAT) was born into the fashion industry. Her parents owned a clothing manufacturing company where at a young age she developed a reverence for the labor behind garment production. During her time at Parsons, Janelle was introduced to the cornerstone of her practice today: the zero waste design methodology. Zero waste garment patterns are like puzzles—all the pattern pieces fit together so that nothing is wasted—whereas traditional methods discard 15% of textiles.

Today, Janelle works exclusively with found, reclaimed, deadstock, and second-hand textiles and materials to create works of art that transcend genres—from fashion to costuming for theatre and dance, wearable furniture and rugs to large scale paintings and soft sculptures—she is relentlessly committed to recontextualizing the world that is, into the world that could be. Used materials hold sentimental, emotional, and historical value—narratives of past lives live whisper and echo through Janelle’s work.

Join JRAT at Bungee Space to celebrate the NYC debut of the “Channel Changer” collection and performance art video alongside brand-new garments and zines from the 3T series.

More pieces will be available for try-on and purchase at Bungee, Feb 22-25.

Janelle Abbott has taken a special interest in using utterly undesirable materials to conceive her work. This collection mostly contains garments that were unwearable for one reason or another, scraps from other artists and long past projects, some of Abbott's personal clothes that she accidentally destroyed, and other salvaged materials—all were cut into strips, sewn into yarn and woven or sewn strip by strip onto a backing such as salvaged lining material. Each piece is one of a kind, hand dyed and painted, woven, knit, and/or stitched—all in alignment with the zero waste methodology.

Clips from “Channel Changer” performance (September 2-3, 2023 @bumbershoot2023)

3 orphaned t-shirts become 1, allowing the hints, wisps, and memories of events and experiences past to eke out through the vertical texture.

The wastefulness of the industry has become my gain. I thus fight to salvage and reconfigure as much pre-existing clothing and textiles as possible; redeeming it from the trash heap of capitalism, so that it can transcend the confines of fleeting, momentary trends, fads, and live into the future redefined as an heirloom, the embodiment of a memory, an experiment, a work of art. I create clothing that can hang in someone’s closet as much as it can hang on a gallery wall.

— Janelle Abbott

Poster designer/Editor: Shuyu Peng