BASE OF THE STAIRS
at
Central Library
Brooklyn, New York
October 4 – November 4, 2024
What threads of collaborative remedy are possible amidst the fabric’s unravelings?
From October 4 to November 4, 2024, equipped with a hundred-year-old sewing machine mounted on a portable wagon, I took up residence at the stairs of Central Library in Brooklyn offering to fix tattered garments for free.
The problem was: I didn’t know how to sew. As the collective reckoning of the U.S. Presidential election loomed, “The Mend” invited neighbors and passersby to attend to careworn clothing – and our common threads. Will the community work together to fix what it doesn’t know how to fix? “The Mend” blends conceptual performance with community-based art offering audiences a chance to repair the proverbial fabric in the face of its great unraveling.
Conceived and Performed by Brandon Woolf
Wagon Master and Scenic Collaboration: Susan Barras
Dramaturgical Collaboration: Maxwell Flaum
Special Thanks to:
Tina Petereit, Thalia Woolf, Béla Woolf, David Froman, Stephen McFadden, Stew Stewart, Dennis Johannßen, Ivy Woolf Turk, Kelly Woolf, and Konrad Klapheck.
Press
Video by P. Martinka, New York Post Online (November 3, 2024)
Trailer
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If You’d Like to Support Our Work.
brandon woolf performance projects is fiscally sponsored by Fractured Atlas, a non-profit arts organization. All donations are tax deductible to the extent permitted by law.
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Thank you so much for your support.