How do we use fashion to communicate larger cultural messages?This is the question that prompted Cultural Redress, an exploration of the Queens Library’s holdings in the Index of American Design by eight contemporary artists – whose work demonstrates that the function of fashion goes well beyond the practical to communicate who we are as individuals and as a culture.

The Index of American Design is an exhaustive pictorial archive of American practical and decorative objects dating from the colonial period through the late nineteenth century, and provides an important historical backdrop for this exhibition. Each of the eight participating artists in Cultural Redress have selected renderings of garments from the Library’s collection to inspire new work that  re-addresses these fashions via their implications of social status, gender identity, propriety and conformity to cultural traditions and social mores.  

Begun in 1935, the Index of American Design was part of a larger national commitment to providing work relief during the Great Depression through the Federal Art Project (FAP) of the Works Progress Administration (WPA), a “New Deal” project initiated by then-President Franklin Delano Roosevelt.  Conceived by two women in New York, Romana Javitz, head of the New York Public Library’s Picture Collection, and Ruth Reeves, a successful textile designer, the Index employed approximately one thousand artists who in turn produced over 18,000 watercolor renderings of objects in museum and private collections.  The goal in creating this visual record was to catalog artifacts that were thought to embody a distinctive American character -- common and utilitarian objects that had up until that time defined American material culture: quilts, furniture, wood carvings, stoneware, clothing, toys, commercial signage, weathervanes, and more.  Originally, there were plans to publish portfolios of the works recorded in the Index; however the project was dissolved in 1942 when funds needed to be diverted to military efforts.

After the Index of American Design was discontinued, duplicate watercolor renderings by artist trainees were sold to educational institutions and libraries. The Queens Library's collection of work from the Index of American Design represents more than 80 works by artists who participated in the New York City arm of the Index project. The Library's collection is comprised in large part by renderings of early American men's, women's and children's costume, and also includes renderings of early American furniture.

Fast forward to 2006, and the Index of American Design still bears relevance to contemporary art.  Artists whose works are included in Cultural Redress explore the social, cultural and historical dimensions of dress, offering updated reconsiderations – in a variety of media – to the garments depicted in this historic body of work.  

Juliana Driever, Cultural Redress Curator