Exquisite Self: New Work by Krissy Teegerstrom

EXQUISITE SELF
new work by Krissy Teegerstrom

June 2—July 29, 2023

OPENING:
Friday, June 2, 2023
7-9 pm

SPACE C7 is proud to present, EXQUISITE SELF, new work by self-taught Austin artist, Krissy Teegerstrom. Drawing inspiration through her intuition, faith in the unseen, and a connection to the natural world, Krissy works with pencil, paper, paint, thread, and fabric sewing on her 1948 Singer Featherweight sewing machine to create murals, collages, drawings, and sculpture. She is dedicated to sustainability utilizing secondhand materials in the majority of her work. Clients and collaborators include Eddie Vedder, John Doe, Phoebe Bridges, and Heritage Boot among others.

ES is a continuation of a series of wearable capes made entirely from secondhand materials. A cape surrounds a body, rendering it both obscured and hypervisible. Whether worn or viewed as a standalone art object, each of these capes is meant to envelop the wearer in luminous, reflective, and sumptuous fabrics to impart the feeling of being exquisite.

Imagine walking into a room wearing something so unique that no one has ever seen it before. People will look. People will comment, either to you or about you. They will see you, and they will react, and respond. Who will approach you? What will they say? What doors might open for you? How will you feel with this attention directed your way? As a child, Teegerstrom was conditioned to feel unworthy of care and attention.

Growing up in a house marred by addiction and undiagnosed mental illness she suffered neglect and emotional abuse throughout her formative years. How does this affect the Self? She explored this in her 2022 exhibition titled I Was Already Everything, where she created one-of-a-kind capes depicting the fragments of herself that she was able to recover through trauma therapy. In her post-traumatic growth, she has begun to build self-worth for the first time in her life. The opposite of neglect is to be nurtured and to be seen. For someone who was left alone and ignored as a child, what does it mean to draw attention to oneself? Nothing, and no one, is disposable.

Discovering secondhand materials is a deliberate process that informs her final designs and is also a way for her to express her devotion to conserving the environment, a value she holds sacred. Her inspirations take her down paths she has not tread before and, heeding its call, she experiences healing and growth.

“These capes have worked on me,” she says. “They invite me to be seen, and to share what’s most precious to me, from the truths that make us, to the dreams that keep us going. The true Self — that precious primordial essence of you that exists before you experience doubts, drama, dreamkillers, hardship, tragedy, abuse or any manner of heavy weather — is exquisite. It is sacred. It will always and forever will be. Let no one tell you different.”

Please join us for what promises to be a special night at Space C7. Come meet the artist and you might even get to try on a cape and feel exquisite yourself! For more information or to schedule a visit to the gallery, please email Space C7 curator Jeff Wheeler at Jeffrey_Wheeler@hotmail.com.