One After 909 is delighted to present Labor Lost, a new solo exhibition by Chicago-based sculptor Eric Gushee. Heavily layered and hauntingly beautiful, the works are contemporary relics, combining discarded materials with reenvisioned fiber techniques. Using found objects such as thrifted doilies and recycled materials acquired from closed factories, Gushee creates sculptural embodiments of decadence and decline.
The exhibition is an homage to all laborers, from the grandmothers whose meticulous crafts have been tossed away to the factory workers whose jobs became obsolete. Though the fruits of these anonymous craftspeoples’ labors were discarded, they were not lost. “These pieces were not just created by me,” says Gushee. “It’s a collaboration with all of those who were told their work no longer mattered.”
Gushee does not attempt to disguise his materials. Alternatively, he celebrates them by highlighting their physicality. In his piece Scrapbooking 1 (2020), doilies and netted fabric are combined into a fiber sculpture that casts delicate, lace-like shadows on the walls behind and surrounding it, emphasizing its spatial and formal qualities.
Labor Lost served as a commentary on class and commerce. It invites us to reconsider our perceptions of waste and excess through Gushee’s bold and thoughtful repurposing.
Preview works – HERE
Eric Gushee is a Chicago-based artist, who was born and raised in New York City. His interest in art was first found at Marlboro College. During his stay at Marlboro, Eric devoted himself to the arts, graduating with the highest honors. After two years of being a practicing artist, he decided to further his academic career by attending The Art Institute of Chicago and graduated with a BFA in 2010. Much of Eric’s work is a struggle between the two and three-dimensional worlds, the shadows cast by his sculptures often can be seen in his drawings and sometimes the drawings themselves are made from the sculpture’s materials. His work combines the unfamiliar world with the familiar, he does not try to disguise the materials he uses but embraces them for what they are and can be.