Rachel Siegel: Cottage Industry

First Friday Reception: August 7^th, 6-9pm

Cottage Industry, an installation concerning the nature and site of women’s work, plays off the house/office dynamic of the pushdot studio gallery space.

Many professions, including the printer, the butcher, the baker, the nurse, and the homemaker, wear an apron. The apron persists in its simplest form, but through each era takes on styles and changes of the times. Like the house that holds pushdot studio the structure remains, but the activities contained within the walls vary vastly over time. The exact history is less important to me than the story this unique site tells: time conflating the domestic and commercial and the value of women’s labor acknowledged in Cottage Industry.

Rachel Siegel lives in Los Angeles and Portland. Her artistic practice investigates social and political concerns as well as feminist themes. She draws on autobiography in much the same way that Second Wave Feminists used the personal to address patriarchal power structures. In her work she often uses humor and playfulness to investigate issues that are significant to her (including the body, the family, health and interpersonal relationships). Her current art practice incorporates fabric, digital prints, artist’s books, video, and installation work. She has exhibited internationally and national. She currently teaches at Sierra Canyon Middle and High School in Chatsworth.