CCS BARD

Texas-based artist Joseph Havel assembles components of ordinary garments, such as labels and collars, into freestanding sculptures and wall installations. His materials are taken from the everyday white shirt, an object laden with implications about modern work culture. In his installations, the artist takes apart the implied meanings of this uniform for the modern office. While Havel’s works stand as discrete objects, they also remind us of everyday aspects of middle-class work culture, through repetition, massification, and dematerialization. Havel’s works are very much in keeping with the Southwestern assemblage tradition while maintaining an openness that invites viewing possibilities beyond these metaphors and the formal references of the objects they are made of.