Highlights | MakerSpace NYC

Sep 2, 2021

New York Textile Month 2021

Updated: Sep 7, 2021

We are pleased to present an exhibition and artist talk in conjunction with New York Textile Month of artist and makerspace member, Hilla Shapira.

Advanced Protection is a series of soft talismans and wearable objects by Hilla Shapira. She references Jewish iconographic objects like Judika and spiritual objects alongside body parts, genitalia and menstrual pads. Shapira creates a queer point of view on the term God, as a queer woman from a Jewish orthodox background. By redesigning the objects, Shapira reclaim the religious discourse and sexuality taboos. She questions the language hierarchies of blessing and cursing and the binarc separation between organs and gentiles.

ON VIEW September 23- October 24 OPENING RECEPTION September 23 | 6-8 PM ONLINE ARTIST TALK

September 26 | 4-5 PM

FUTUREWORKS MAKERSPACE 140 58TH Street, Building B Brooklyn, NY NEW YORK TEXTILE MONTH 2021

Jul 15, 2021

De nadie

how DID YOU GET STARTED?

"I always had interest for art in general and experimented with lots of media, but mostly drawing and painting kept me in at peace. Metal came to me very unexpected almost as though I tripped and landed on a metal shop. It was mind blowing my brain could not compute how it was possible to bend metal in such amazing way; I just fell in love on the spot and enrolled in a metal classes for ten years. The rest is history."

What inspires you?

"Inspiration is such a classy old lady, it shows up in the weirdest crazy places like in the middle of the night when you get up to pee or when riding the train to Queens and a homeless sits next to you wearing a red wig and the smell slap you on the brain. There is no telling where an image or idea will pop up."

DO YOU HAVE ANY UPCOMING PROJECTS YOU CAN TELL US ABOUT?

"There is so much I want to do but do not like to keep a list or make plans or a blueprint. At the moment working on a voodoo doll handicap family (dog included) next a chunky flying rat, a few more hearts with wings and somewhere in between a Hydraulic forging press and few more machines."

DO YOU HAVE ANY UPCOMING PROJECTS YOU CAN TELL US ABOUT?

"Yes, right now I am participating in a show at Wasserman Projects in Detroit and at the textile Biennale in Ukraine. I will participate in Jerusalem Design week at the beginning of July. In addition I am collaborating with my partner Naama Levit. She will have a show at Brooklyn Metal works in the second week of July and we will do a performance there at the same time. It will include installation and wearable objects."

HOW DID YOU FIND OUT ABOUT MAKERSPACE?

"A friend told me about this place and the very next day took a tour and it is Heaven in the middle of the world."

WHERE TO FIND de nadie:

https://www.facebook.com/DENADIE.NET/

https://www.instagram.com/infiernodenadie/

Jun 24, 2021

Hilla Shapira

Updated: Jul 13, 2021

TELL US ABOUT YOURSELF

"I am Hilla Shapira, a Body Object Maker, Originally from Tel Aviv Israel. I have a Bachelor degree in Fashion design From Bezalel Academy of Art and Design. I moved To the USA to do a Master in Fiber Art at Cranbrook Academy of Art and I graduated in May 2020. My practice is multidisciplinary and includes clothing construction, performance, video, sound, and installation. My work deals with the relationships between common design and body regimen. By making functional mundane objects or representations of them I question design norms and the political aspects of everyday things. I have presented my work in Israel, Europe, and the USA.

Aside from my own studio practice I collaborate with choreographers, dancers and other makers, this is why a place like MakerSpace is important for my making process, as a place to create and meet at the same time. Nowadays I am a member and leading sewing and embroidery classes at MakerSpace Brooklyn."

HOW DID YOU GET STARTED?

"After graduating from Bezalel Academy of Art and Design I worked in the fashion industry in Israel. Very fast I understood that I can’t be part of this world. I care about the making process and not about the mass production. For 5 years I worked as an independent costume designer and I worked with different choreographers, productions and theaters in Israel. In addition I started to invest in my artistic studio practice and made one of a kind pieces. I have decided to come to the USA to do my MFA in Cranbrook Academy, it was a huge step that I felt was necessary to my career. It expanded my point of view on the art world in general and on my specific discipline."

WHAT INSPIRES YOU?

"I am inspired by new places and new meetings. I love to be exposed to new textures of living, unexpected assemblage of materials, objects and shapes. Cities are a good base for finding spontaneous inspiration moments. I am looking for them when I walk around Brooklyn, I try to find the layers of the individuals that live here. The objects that are left behind, the architecture that keeps changing every day, the garments that people choose to perform with while walking in public. Everywhere I visit or live in I look for the materials and objects that would tell me the story of the place. "