The International Studio & Curatorial Program presents Spindle City, a solo exhibition of work by Vibe Overgaard, curated by Media Farzin. Spindle City takes the textile industry as a context from which to examine the workings and impact of growth economies. It is based on the artist’s research in Pawtucket, Rhode Island, and Lowell, Massachusetts, major hubs of industrial cotton production in the United States, and draws on the artist’s background growing up in a Danish town founded as a manufacturing center for textiles. 

The exhibition features a video essay, Spindle City, and a series of sculptures made of ceramic, wood, metal, and thread. The circuit is a recurring motif: from the fiber that winds through sculptures that evoke industrial looms, to the animated lines of the video, which symbolically trace a critical path through legacies of capitalism, colonialism, slavery, and the welfare state. 

In the artist’s words, “this series investigates and questions the legacy of industrialization, especially the Western mindset that worships the machine and lets nothing stand in the way of economic growth. It asks us to imagine ways of balancing technological development with a deeper attention to nature and our own capacity for sensitivity.”

Exhibition curator Media Farzin states, “Spindle City grounds us within the vistas and systems we have inherited from industrial capitalism. It proposes small-scale gestures of agency and responsibility within these received forms. It gestures towards a more thoughtful understanding of global citizenship, social forms organized around the mutual needs of human bodies, communities, and ecologies.”

Public programs will be announced on ISCP’s website and newsflashes.

Vibe Overgaard is a Danish visual artist working broadly with installation, sculpture, performance, video, archive material and critical writing. Her research-based practice focuses on economies seen from a historical perspective. Often researching industry and production relations of a specific location, her work links local circumstances to greater global-political questions and critiques. She has exhibited work at Kunsthal NORD, Aalborg, Denmark; Goethe Institut, Ramallah, Palestine; and Floating Projects, Hong Kong, among others. She was an ISCP artist-in-residence in 2022 and 2023 supported by the Danish Arts Foundation.

Media Farzin is a New York-based writer and art historian. She received her BFA in Painting from Tehran University, an MA in Curatorial Studies from Columbia University, and a PhD from the City University of New York. She was curator of Nicky Nodjoumi: Fractures, The Third Line, Dubai; Turning Points, Neiman Gallery, New York; and Fluxus Scores and Instructions, Museum of Contemporary Art, Roskilde, Denmark. Her project with artist Alessandro Balteo Yazbeck was shown at the 12th Istanbul Biennial and later at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Her writings have appeared in Art Agenda, Artforum, Bidoun, Frieze, and Modern Painters, among others. She is a faculty member at the School of Visual Arts and is Publications Director at Happy Family Night Market.

This exhibition is supported, in part, by Consulate General of Denmark in New York; Danish Arts Foundation; Hartfield Foundation; Milton and Sally Avery Arts Foundation; New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, in partnership with the City Council; New York State Council on the Arts and the New York State Legislature; and William Talbott Hillman Foundation.

By visiting ISCP, you agree to abide by the following health and safety policies. Please make sure to plan ahead for your visit.

• Groups of four or more are required to schedule an appointment in advance. Please write to info@iscp-nyc.org
• All visitors are encouraged to maintain social distancing while at ISCP.
• Masks or face coverings are strongly recommended but not mandatory.
• Hand sanitizer will be available for visitors.
• If you have fever, chills, cough, muscle pains, headache, loss of taste or smell, or think you may have been exposed to COVID-19 prior to your visit, please contact us to reschedule.
• An inherent risk of exposure to COVID-19 and other infectious conditions exists in any public space where people are present. Those visiting the International Studio & Curatorial Program voluntarily assume all risks related to exposure to COVID-19, other infectious conditions, and other hazards that may be present in a public space.