backstory: A special needle and thread
Long ago, when I was a curatorial assistant at the National Museum of Women in the Arts, I spent time with an extraordinary artist, Pat Oleszko.
Pat has been working in the field of performance art since the early 1970s. What made my experience of Pat most special is that it was she, and her work, way back then, that first opened my eyes to the limitless possibilities of contemporary artistic production. At the women’s museum, we were installing a survey of Pat’s work that included props, costumes, inflatables, and video (a show that, ironically, traveled to the Neuberger, although I had never even been to the Neuberger way back then). I was sitting on the floor with her, needle and orange thread in hand, mending her costume “Charles Patless,” astounded at the ways in which art could be more than just paint on a canvas or carved wood or stone. Here was an artist whose canvas was her body, who acted in her own visual art, who animated the object in brave and marvelous ways—all starting with a needle and thread.
I hope you’ve had a chance to make it to one of our monthly Happy Hours. The next one, on November 6 will feature Pat at 5 o’clock in what she is calling an “(Un)Happy Hour.” I have no idea what will happen, but I know you should be there.
Tracy Fitzpatrick
Director, Neuberger Museum of Art