What was Colette Justine's first art installation?
Colette Justine
Colette's first performance/photo work took place in 1970 when she had herself photographed as "Liberty Leading the People" after Delacroix. She presented this work to the public in 1972. In an installation, composed of white parachute silk, embedded lighting, [lightboxes, lavender-painted floors inscribed with her personal code and audios, she posed as Liberté. This tableau vivant could also be viewed from the windows of the gallery. Fred McDarrah photographed it for The Village Voice in January 1973.
Olek (artist)
Olek first used crocheting as part of her art in 2003 after moving to the United States. She "wowed critics" at the Williamsburg Arts and Historical Society Surrealist Fashion Show that year. In 2004, Olek created "a large tentlike piece made of crocheted strips of cloth, hair, cassette tape and stuffed animals" work for a four-person show. "The New York Times" said this work gave the show at 5BE Gallery in Chelsea, Manhattan, "a tour-de-force center to work around." Her crocheted sculpture "Spill" (2005), featured in the "Washington Post", included 1,300 skinny white balloons cascading in an "intestinal shape". She participated in The Waterways, a "socially conscious" art project on a "vaporetto" water bus during the 2005 Venice Biennale; her work, called "Camouflage", "exploring the androgyny of fixed identity, sexuality, and culture". In September and October of that year, Olek crocheted the windows of a burned-out, abandoned building near her artist residency in Utica, New York. During this period, her costumes for theatre and dance performances drew critical praise, although a dance performance relating to one of her sculptures was criticized.