Workshop Synopsis
This hands-on workshop invites participants to transform secondhand clothing into powerful, wearable works of art. Using recycled materials, you'll alter garments once worn by strangers—clothes with unknown histories—and turn them into deeply personal statements.
Through stitching, writing, cutting, and layering, you’ll craft a piece that speaks your truth: a message, a memory, a symbol of who you are and how you see the world. This is more than fashion—it’s communication through creation.
We’ll explore how words, images, and garments can serve as tools for connection, care, and expression. Whether bold, poetic, humorous, or healing, your design will carry meaning that resonates beyond yourself—offering a moment of reflection, solidarity, or inspiration to others.
No prior sewing experience is needed—just a willingness to reclaim, re-imagine, and remake. Come as you are, and leave with something un- apologetically yours.
About Ruby Chisti
Ruby Chishti, a Pakistani American sculptor and installation artist based in New York City, brings a haunting and enigmatic touch to her work. Educated at the National College of Arts in Lahore, Chishti's sculptures traverse the journey of fabric from discarded mass-produced and ceremonial clothing to the reimagined filaments of artistic expression. Her practice extends to audio-visual installations, exploring the fusion of found garments with social memory, intertwined with her own complex history of trauma and resilience. From unexpected family losses to the destruction of her Pakistani home, Chishti's art reflects the survival of migration and her persistence through transitional challenges.
Chishti has undertaken residencies both domestically and internationally, including being a Critic in Residence at Cornell University and recieved the VSC/Pollock Krasner Fellowship in 2022, Joan Mitchell Foundation Grant in 2024. Her installations, sculptures, and site-specific works have graced prestigious venues such as the Asia Society Museum in New York, Queens Museum, Harris Museum in Preston, UK, Hudson Valley MOCA, and Middlebury College Museum of Art, National Museum of Qatar among others.
Her impactful pieces find a permanent home in esteemed collections including those of the Art Mill Museum Qatar Museum, Kiran Nadar Museum of Art, Devi Art Foundation, and the Whitworth Gallery in London
