Marcy Sperry

Muscle Baby #1 (White)
child’s sleeper, muscle magazine fragments, packaging tape, glass beads, hand embroidery
36 x 24 in.

Most recently I have been working almost exclusively with recycled materials, primarily the fabrics and cast-off clothing (especially t-shirts with graphics) found in thrift stores. For years, t-shirt graphics have been a (usually lower- to middle-class) means of publicly conveying membership, participation, and the attitudes of the wearer. By taking fragments of these messages and reassembling them into complexly rendered surfaces that take the form of clothing, fabric collages, quilts, and installations, I am using them and other recycled materials as a kind of lexicon to convey new cultural meanings that explore class, power, conflict, dysfunction, and joy.

© Marcy Sperry