Laura Eliason - "The Lady Pilot"

Artist: Laura Eliason Title: The Lady Pilot Medium: mixed media (95% recycled materials) Dimensions: variable Artist Statement:  About 95% of the materials are reclaimed from fashion industry waste including fabrics, yarns, threads, etc. I love that Isle of Dogs gave us a landscape called ‘trash island’, how on-point. In general we are so out-of-sight-out-of-mind about the things we dispose of, but really it all has to end up somewhere, right? Anyway the point being, I really wanted to waste as little as possible making this piece and I wanted to support businesses working to change the way we think about waste. The jacket is partly made of fabric that I knitted at the Textile Arts Center, a learning center and community in NYC advocating for the handmade. The rest of the fabrics I got through a company called FabScrap, an amazing organization that works to find uses for textiles that would otherwise fill landfills. I made the headpiece from a broken hanger and tiny flashlight. The bum bag was picked up at a clothing swap. If you take a picture of the garments with your flash on, the reflective tape creates a bright glow. I loved The Little Pilot and it was engaging for me to project the character into an unknown future on to an adult woman, our Lady Pilot. I have so many questions for her: What do you fly? Who is your dog? What can you salvage, build, reclaim from trash? Who and what will you fight for? This work is featured in Isle of Dogs a tribute show to the Wes Anderson film - on view November 9th - 11th, 2018 in NYC. Payment plans are available on certain works, please email NYC@spoke-art.com for more information.