anti-factory

Anti-Factory RESTOCK! Autumn Upon Us!

noreply@blogger.com (anti-factory) — Thu, 11 Oct 2007 22:36:00 +0000

http://www.anti-factory.com

Yay! After long last, a slew of new stuff: cashmere sweaters, hoodies, roomy pockets, and more! It's been wayyyy too long and I'm happy to have new designs and items available for perusal :)

...and yes, it's been a keee-razy summer! lots of travel, funtimes, and changes. Will fill you in on all the details in the near future!

xo

back from the beyond!

noreply@blogger.com (anti-factory) — Thu, 04 Oct 2007 17:23:00 +0000

Whoa! Where has all the time gone? And where, oh where, have I been, you may be asking? The summer was filled with so much travelling and art project-related things that the Anti-Factory store took a hiatus from being restocked and tended to. That will change soon! I'm in the process of making a ton of new stuff (sweaters, yum! little jackets! yum!). That sort of ilk. I know it sucks to be gone from Anti-Factory for so long, but I really needed to pull this other stuff together :)

BUT! I got back from a 2-week trip to Istanbul for the show "Hackers and Haute Couture Heretics," curated by Otto Von Busch at Garanti Gallery. It was an amazing experience and you can catch up on photos and the project statement on Otto's Selfpassage website: http://www.selfpassage.org

An excerpt from the curatorial statement:

"It has become commonplace to describe the world as shifting from an industrial mode to a network ), something we can also perceive in the fashion world. Namely, fashion has moved from a Paris-centered to a globally distributed system. This shift also influences the strategies of counter-culture movements as they change from dialectic strategies of opposition, subvertising and sabotage to engage in negotiations, social entrepreneurship and clever modulation of flows in everyday consumerism. This transformation can be compared to how heretic movements in opposition to the centralized Vatican interpretation of the Bible have moved from atheism and objections of faith to a liberation theology, using faith as a force for social change.
The “Hackers and Haute Couture Heretics” exhibition investigates how hacking, shopdropping, and craftivism are tactics used in the outskirts of fashion. The artists and designers taking part in the exhibition propose new ways of operating within the fashion system, reverse engineer the system in order to find ways to practically hack it. These artists and designers are not subverting fashion as much as subconstructing it, tuning it, and making its subroutines run in new ways..."

gallery view of counterfeiting crochet projects in progress

towards a handmade gucci bag, with images of burberry ipod cases to be made in the future...

me -n- Otto showing off our gucci counterfeits in progress...

I also went to the Istanbul Biennial and had a great time seeing the awesome art. Will report back more on this later. For now just wanted to say that I'm still alive and kicking! Goodbye summer, it was great having you around :)

Hang tight for new Anti-Factory inventory!

Galleon Trade show opens in Manila, Philippines, July 24!

noreply@blogger.com (anti-factory) — Tue, 17 Jul 2007 00:55:00 +0000

I'm leaving tomorrow night for almost three weeks for this awesome thing... Ten other artist friends of mine are going out, too, so we're a-gonna have a raucously good time in the Philippines all together. Helllloooooo Third World, place of my birth!

----------------------
Galleon Trade is a series of international arts exchange projects, focusing on the Philippines, Mexico, and California. Taking the historic Acapulco-Manila galleon route as its metaphor of origin, these exhibitions seek to create new routes of cultural exchange along old routes of commerce and trade.

"GALLEON TRADE"
July 24 to August 16, 2007
An international exhibition spread over three galleries in Metro Manila, Philippines
organized by Jenifer Wofford

Featuring Works by Mike Arcega, Eliza O. Barrios, Enrique Chagoya, Jaime Cortez, Reanne Estrada, Richard Godinez, Julio Cesar Morales, Gina Osterloh, Johanna Poethig, Stephanie Syjuco, Megan Wilson, and Jenifer Wofford

for details: http://www.galleontrade.org

-----------------------------
Gallery Openings:
-----------------------------
July 24: opening at Mag:net Cafe High Street, Bonifacio Global City, Taguig
July 26: opening at Green Papaya Art Projects, Quezon City
July 28: opening at Gallery Katipunan, Quezon City

------------------------
Related Events:
-------------------------
July 25: 3-6pm
Panel discussion
Pontifical University of Santo Tomas, Espana, Manila

Filipino American Writers & Scholars Lecture Series,
The event will be additionally sponsored by the UST VARSITARIAN.
Roundtable speakers: Jenifer Wofford, Galleon Trade curator; Lucy Burns, scholar-participant, UCLA; May Datuin, scholar-participant, UP-Diliman; Megan Wilson, artist-participant; Jaime Cortez, artist-participant; additional participant TBA.

July 27: 4:30-6:30pm
KRITIKA KULTURA Lecture Series. Reception to follow.
Ateneo De Manila University

Roundtable speakers: Jenifer Wofford, Galleon Trade curator; Eric Reyes, scholar-participant; Norberto Roldan, curator, Green Papaya Arts Projects; Johanna Poethig, artist-participant; Stephanie Syjuco, artist-participant

-------------------
Background:
-------------------
Galleon Trade is a series of international arts exchange projects, focusing on the Philippines, Mexico, and California. Taking the historic Acapulco-Manila galleon route as its metaphor of origin, these exhibitions seek to create new routes of cultural exchange along old routes of commerce and trade.

Galleon Trade should not be seen as a single exhibition: it is entirely about reciprocity and gathering momentum, to create a road map that will make future arts alliances and exchanges like this much easier. Starting in Manila, but continuing to California, Mexico and beyond, Galleon Trade will facilitate further discussions between artists, curators, gallerists and scholars from all 3 places to explore strategies for sustainable exchange.

Galleon Trade I comes to the Mag:net Galleries in Metro Manila, Philippines, from July 24 to August 16 2007. The Luggage Store Gallery will host Galleon Trade II for 2008, which will bring Mexican and Filipino artists to California. Galleon Trade III sails for Mexico for in 2008/2009.

==> Anti-Factory: Last chance in July!

noreply@blogger.com (anti-factory) — Sat, 14 Jul 2007 19:42:00 +0000

The Anti-Factory store will be closing for vacation after this weekend, so it's the last chance to pick up any items for a whole month! A few new dresses and hoodies are in stock (along with a sweet cotton sweater), so come take a look before the store closes...

Please note that payments and purchases finalized by midnight on Sunday, July 15 will be sent off before I leave. Anything that happens after will have to wait until I get back in August!

http://www.anti-factory.com

So where am i going, you may ask? I'm heading of to the land of my birth, the Philippines, for a fun group show called Galleon Trade. My friend and compatriot Filipina American Jenifer Wofford has organized a great international exhibition that will examine the linkages of the Philippines, California, and Mexico, via the Spanish galleon trade routes of colonial days. This particular leg features California artists going to Manila and will include exhibitions in three different galleries along with a symposium. Next year, she'll be sending Filipino artists to San Francisco as well as Mexico. Post-globalization in action!

Check it out here: Galleon Trade

sodafine = so good!

noreply@blogger.com (anti-factory) — Fri, 13 Jul 2007 19:20:00 +0000

Sodafine of Brooklyn is having an online summer sale! One of the most awesome small-business boutiques in Williamsburg, Erin stocks the store with both eco-friendly and small-scale, handmade items. Check out a bunch of great summer shoes, dresses, and jeans that will make you feel you just stepped into a yum yum festival (whatever that is, it sounds great, no?)! It's quality all the way...

SODAFINE SALE!

my personal faves:

Breezy Blouse: with a peekaboo back!

Cocoa Cardigan by Tsuyumi

Maiden: Pelagic organic cotton jeans by Loomstate

Ultragirl flocked peeptoe rubber shoes

==> even more items in store!

noreply@blogger.com (anti-factory) — Thu, 12 Jul 2007 05:57:00 +0000

i'm moving 'em out! a few new hoodies, and some great tops and dresses for the summer :). I'll be leaving town next Tuesday for a few weeks and really want to clear out as much inventory as possible, so i'm posting things online like a mad woman... whew!

http://www.anti-factory.com

"Altered States" opens 7/12 at Kala Art Institute!

noreply@blogger.com (anti-factory) — Thu, 12 Jul 2007 03:23:00 +0000

Yep, I'm a bit slow to tell everyone, but tomorrow night (Thurs) I'm having an opening with Packard Jennings and Scott Kildall as part of our residency program at Kala Art Institute in Berkeley. "Altered States" uses video, animation, and real and virtual space to create alternative visions of the world as we know it...

Smash reality--let's party!

-------------------------
"ALTERED STATES"
Packard Jennings, Scott Kildall, and Stephanie Syjuco

July 12 - August 18, 2007
Opening Reception: Thursday, July 12, 6-8pm

Kala Art Institute
1060 Heinz Ave (at San Pablo)
Berkeley, CA 94710
http://www.kala.org

-----------------------
The Kala Gallery is proud to present the second of our three-part exhibition series, Residency Projects, featuring work by Packard Jennings, Scott Kildall and Stephanie Syjuco.

Kala Fellowships are awarded annually to eight innovative artists working in installation, video, digital media, printmaking, and book arts. Fellowship artists are selected from a competitive field of applicants from the United States, South America, Europe, Africa, Australia and Asia. Recipient artists receive a financial award and up to six-months residency at Kala’s studio facility followed by an exhibition of their new work.

-------------------------
artist websites:
http://www.stephaniesyjuco.com
http://www.kildall.com
http://centennialsociety.com/durham.html

Store is open now!

noreply@blogger.com (anti-factory) — Fri, 06 Jul 2007 19:00:00 +0000

I jumped the gun...the hoodies are on sale NOW (not this weekend), so mosey on by!

sneak peek: Anti-Factory hoodies!

noreply@blogger.com (anti-factory) — Thu, 05 Jul 2007 23:58:00 +0000

This weekend I'll be putting a slew of new handmade hoodies into the online store. For now, here's a sneak peek at the styles and colors that will be available! Check back Friday night or Saturday day to get first dibs...

And boy, do you know how hard it was trying to perfect sewing separating zippers? i mean, that's what *makes* a good hoodie but it took me quite a bit of wrangling to figure out how to pattern the pockets and get the zippers to be correct and all. But voila! There they go! I'm pretty proud, dammit :)

Anti-Factory is having a SUMMER SALE!

noreply@blogger.com (anti-factory) — Mon, 02 Jul 2007 16:14:00 +0000

Whew! I gots ta make room for a new batch of hoodies in the works (yowza), so I'm having a big ole sale in the online store. All remaining Nekko styles are $50, which means that's almost 50% off the dresses, and 40% off the tops!

I'll think I'll be making more Nekkos in the future, but for now, I've got to move it all out. I'm one of those impatient types and I'd rather see them enjoying themselves out in the world as opposed to sitting in inventory :)

Check it out!

http://www.anti-factory.com

...and regarding those HOODIES! Every girl could use a hoodie or two, no matter what season! The ones I'm making are mixing up all sorts of patterns and fabrics to create an awesome colormixing of sorts--i'm totally excited by them and hope you will be, too! stick around and watch out for the general announcement.

If you'd like to be added to my email list, please email me at: stephanie (at) anti-factory (dot) com

over and out!

==> secret RESTOCK!

noreply@blogger.com (anti-factory) — Tue, 12 Jun 2007 02:37:00 +0000

heya! i just put up 23 new items into the Anti-Factory store and won't send out an email announcement until tomorrow...if you're so inclined to get first dibs on anything, go visit the website and take a peek :)

www.anti-factory.com

Ignore the front page, which hasn't been updated, and click on towards the shop!

==> Anti-Factory RESTOCK: Migration Patterns!

noreply@blogger.com (anti-factory) — Thu, 31 May 2007 02:20:00 +0000

Just put 20 new items up in the Anti-Factory store! This batch has an international mix of fabrics: African was prints, Indonesian ikat weaves, Japanese textiles, and Indian prints (along with the oldies-but-goodies vintage 70s variety!). I've been loving the boldness of mixing everything up :)

On another note: what's new, world? I've been AWOL in posting to this blog because I started a private version on LiveJournal--it just got too weird having my personal life mixed in with the business end of things. But I'm going to start up with tidbits here and there that still pertain to the art/fashion/politics/making life.

But in the meantime, here's the flotsam and jetsam that's been circling around my head these days. In no particular order of importance (obviously--yeesh!):

--There was a truly scary segment on NPR about the type of viral marketing where they pay ordinary people to insert comments about different products into daily conversation. Supposedly it's pretty common on college campuses and the young 'uns don't seem to mind that they're secretly hawking consumer items for money. Aaaaaaaa! I'm going to start a reverse marketting website where people talk about all the products they HATE and why. Now that'll be fun!

--What's up with Lindsay Lohan? She's a major trainwreck heading for extreme meldown while the world watches and gets entertained by her antics. It's super sad, really.

--Mexican peasant dresses and 70s/80s jumpsuits are all the rage these days (as indicated by the high numbers and cost of them up on ebay!)

--That Lindsay Lohan may be a cocaine addict, too. She's been acting all eratic and stuff.

--Ain't the start of summer bringing us some gorgeous days! Wheeeeeeee!

--Oh, Lindsay, Lindsay, Lindsay. Drew Barrymore should do an intervention and spell out how she went from addict to just dippy. Why is it that the three big teenage girl idols are complete messes (you know, Brit, Paris, and Linds)?

Anti-Factory RESTOCK: Sunshine and Noir!

noreply@blogger.com (anti-factory) — Thu, 17 May 2007 18:14:00 +0000

Dudes, there's like, TWENTY things in the Anti-Factory store now! What am I? Like a one-woman sweatshop? :)

http://www.anti-factory.com

"Forged Realities" on NPR!

noreply@blogger.com (anti-factory) — Sat, 12 May 2007 22:25:00 +0000

Just got word from the curator that the exhibition "Forged Realities" I'm a part of in Beijing was featured on the radio program Pacific Time and aired on Thursday! Awesome! I think it's carried by NPR affilliates and is on KQED in the Bay Area. Check out the archived broadcast on the website and note that I am prominently at the front of the description, along with the Counterfeit Crochet Handbag Project! Yippeeeee! And if you need visuals, this is what they were talking about:

I guess I've used up three minutes of my fame, so I have only 12 left. Gotta use 'em wisely :) lol

Anti-Factory RESTOCK! Hot In the City!

noreply@blogger.com (anti-factory) — Mon, 07 May 2007 04:01:00 +0000

New stuff is up at the store! Go here: http://www.anti-factory.com

It is waaaaay hot here in San Francisco--truly amazing and the outdoor frolicking is in full effect. Mark Twain is famously quoted as saying the coldest winter he ever spent was a summer in San Francisco. Looks like global warming may be changing that factoid for the future...!

photos: Counterfeit Crochet in Beijing!

noreply@blogger.com (anti-factory) — Tue, 01 May 2007 18:31:00 +0000

So! I've been back for over 2 weeks now and it's taken me a bit to process the photos of the Counterfeit Crochet Project into a navigable, informative format, but I think it's in a place where I can share it with ya'll...

To recap: the Counterfeit Crochet Handbag Project, started last April by myself and growing to involve a number of makers around the world (London! Tokyo! Jackson, Mississippi! etc!) was included in an exhibition, "Forged Realities" that is currently up at UniversalStudios Gallery in Beijing, China. A number of participants sent in their finished counterfeits to me and I flew to China for eight days to install them in a glass vitrine case, along with make a new individual work, "Five Days Towards a New Modernim" on-site.

The finished collaborative work is titled "The Counterfeit Crochet Handbag Project: Critique of a Political Economy," with a wry nod to Marx's seminal text. The show run from April 14 thru May 12 and included a catalog written by Pauline Yao (the curator).

Here's the stuff:
The Counterfeit Crochet Handbag Project: Critique of a Political Economy
Forged Realities catalog
The Counterfeit Crochet Handbag Project (basic site)

plus an article in Craft magazine from back in January on the Counterfeit Project!

I want to give a HUGE THANK YOU to all the participants in the project:
Carrie Suchman (Memphis, TN)
Katherine Mok (Tokyo,JAPAN)
Katie Furuyama (UK)
Nicole Stowe (Jackson, MS)
Jennie Lute (Kingsville, OH)
Susan Baldwin (New Haven, CT)

Their hard work and generosity in sharing their projects with me made it such a huge success and I'm proud and honored that they joined up!

Let's do this again soon: any new counterfeiters out there? Let me know and we may have some future show opportunities down the road :)

Anti-Factory RESTOCK! Spring Fling!

noreply@blogger.com (anti-factory) — Sat, 28 Apr 2007 20:53:00 +0000

Dude, it's been a while since I had more than just a few things for sale in the store. But yes, there's more than a baker's dozen being offered. My interface is still a bit weird and you have to email me to purchase anything, but at least it's up!

Fling it, baby!

PROSUMERISM: social networking = free labor?

noreply@blogger.com (anti-factory) — Sat, 28 Apr 2007 01:10:00 +0000

I keep coming back to an article I found via design theorist and educator Ellen Lupton's blog Design Your Life on the idea of "prosumerism." Now fast becoming a buzzword (I think I first heard of it six months ago, and now it's popping up all over the place), prosumerism is essentially a melding of the words "producer" and "consumer." The article "Designing Our Own Graves" by Dmitri Siegal is a critique on the DIY online movement in general, not to be confused with the craft-centric term of DIY.

From Lupton:

"Siegal has coined the word "prosumerism" to describe the convergence of production and consumption triggered by the D.I.Y. movement. Scrapbookers and knitters spend lots money on their supplies, creating markets for goods. More interestingly, on-line community Web sites rely on the time, labor, and creative capital of users to create their own product: "You do not own your Flickr account and you never will. When you update a MySpace account you are building up someone else's asset." (The same can be said for blogs like this one.)"

Hence, we are all "laboring" and "working" when we make content by posting to blogs, del.icio.ous, myspace, youtube, flickr, etc. And we labor to share our information and interests with the world. And yet the nagging reality is that we are "free" content creators moving around on operating systems and structures that we do not own or profit from. Our generosity is translating into "cultural capital" for the corporations that buy out the YouTubes of the world and reap profit via advertising to us.

When reality TV shows hit the air and gained popularity here in the States, the fallout was that writers and actors--folks covered by the Screen Actors Guild and union contracts--found themselves cut out of the jobs. If you look at it one way, television has been "democratized" by the inclusion of reality TV, but it can also be seen as a cheap and easy way for the media corporations to avoid paying for content.

As I just created a del.icio.us account, I'm left wondering what kind of future database I'm creating--that i'm an unpaid, generally oblivious, happily working cog in a machine that will process my interests and make use of the connections I make online. I do not own this structure and I never will.

Chilling.

Doppelganger politics

noreply@blogger.com (anti-factory) — Fri, 27 Apr 2007 23:50:00 +0000

British artist and former Tate Prize winner Mark Wallinger's installation "State Britain" confounds the idea of reality and copy, as well as questions the place of political protest in an art context. In it, Wallinger meticulously recreates within the Tate Museum an actual protest display made by activist Brian Haw in London's Parliament Square. I presented his work to my grad students last week and we had a lively discussion on how it raised issues of the "effectiveness" of political messaging in an art context.

Sometime after Wallinger's version was installed, Haw's original display was dismantled and cut down to a smaller size after a new law was enacted by Parliament banning protest displays larger than 10 feet (Haw's was over 100 feet) within a certain distance from the government building. So in essence, Wallinger's work becomes a time capsule of the original, sealing it into a static piece that is ironically protected within the walls of the (government funded) museum under its status as an "art object."

Otto von Busch is rad!

noreply@blogger.com (anti-factory) — Wed, 25 Apr 2007 18:35:00 +0000

I posted a previous snippet months ago on the artist, activist, and fashion PhD candidate Otto von Busch, but only today stumbled on a fabulous interview article with him on the We Make Money Not Art website. I love his projects and in all disclosure I also have to say I'm taking part in a show he's organizing in Istanbul in the fall, which I feel extremely psyched and lucky about.

Here's to a true fashion hacker!

http://www.we-make-money-not-art.com/archives/009391.php

and also this awesome free PDF book he published, "Abstract Hacktivism," on activism, technology, and creative resistances: http://www.isk-gbg.org/99our68/AbstractHacktivism.pdf

temporary store site is up and active!

noreply@blogger.com (anti-factory) — Mon, 23 Apr 2007 19:35:00 +0000

whew! took me a while to figure it out, but I managed to put up a temporary Anti-Factory store site while my server bugs are being tended to. I've been out of commission from having a "real" web store for months now, and it's been making me feel rather out of sorts. SO!

will post new items soon, but in the meantime, there are four things for your perusal :) email me to purchase anything, but make sure you put the item name in the email body or subject line so i know which one you're talking about.

over n out...

import/export

noreply@blogger.com (anti-factory) — Sun, 22 Apr 2007 21:53:00 +0000

This stuff makes me so angry and sad... click below.

FINALLY! Beijing photos!

noreply@blogger.com (anti-factory) — Sun, 22 Apr 2007 21:30:00 +0000

agh, this took me forever to go through and after a week being back, they're all uploaded to my Flickr account. and even after culling, there's still several hundred of them. if ye are so inclined to wade thru them, check it:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/49646846@N00/sets/72157600084208631/

otherwise, here's a short selection:

back from beijing!

noreply@blogger.com (anti-factory) — Tue, 17 Apr 2007 17:58:00 +0000

just got back from beijing! i tell you, the place is OUT OF CONTROL. let me re-emphasize: OUT OF CONTROL. it's like the go-go new york 80s art world: too much money, too little time. all the artists out there live like rockstars and have ginormous (that's gigantic + enormous) studios and party like there's no tomorrow. obviously, that makes for some interesting problematics (quality control? sustainability?) but will talk more on that later.

details to come. over and out! jetlag sucks but the world spins forwards :) i could totally see myself living in beijing for a month or so, just soaking it all in!

even the graffiti is cute...

beijing recommendations?

noreply@blogger.com (anti-factory) — Tue, 03 Apr 2007 06:39:00 +0000

yes, i know it's a shot in the dark to be asking the internet blogging world, but you never know: got any recommendations for things to do or see in bejing? i'm leaving on saturday for nine days (see the post below) and although i don't think i'll have tons of time outside of gallery stuff, need some "tips" on beijing culture or other funstuffs.

what should one do in beijing? what should one NOT do? do tell....!