![](https://leahvirsik.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/Virsik_ApartattheSeams_7152-1024x756.jpg)
Apart at the Seams, 2020, jean seams, Singer sewing machine and table, 41 x 36 x 22 inches
![](https://leahvirsik.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/Virsik_EyeLevel6YearOldBoy_7125-1024x684.jpg)
top row: Eye Level, 2020, 100 jean flies, linen thread, 177 x 10¼ x 1 inches bottom row: Eye Level of an Average Six Year Old Boy, 2020, 100 jean flies, metal pendant on chain, linen thread, 176 x 9 x 1 inches
![](https://leahvirsik.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/Virsik_EyeLevel_7123-684x1024.jpg)
Eye Level (detail), 2020, 100 jean flies, linen thread, 177 x 10¼ x 1 inches
![](https://leahvirsik.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/Virsik_BalledUp_7134-684x1024.jpg)
Balled Up, 2020, jeans, chairs, hardware
![](https://leahvirsik.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/Virsik_AllTogetherNow05-1.jpg)
All Together Now 05, 2020, jean remnants, thread
![](https://leahvirsik.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/Virsik_AllTogetherNow09.jpg)
All Together Now 09, 2020, jean remnants, thread
![](https://leahvirsik.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/Virsik_AllTogetherNow08.jpg)
All Together Now 08, 2020, jean remnants, thread
![](https://leahvirsik.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/Virsik_AllTogetherNow04-684x1024.jpg)
All Together Now 04, 2020, jean remnants, thread
![](https://leahvirsik.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/Virsik_AllTogetherNow03.jpg)
All Together Now 03, 2020, jean remnants, thread
![](https://leahvirsik.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/Virsik_AllTogetherNow02.jpg)
All Together Now 02, 2020, jean remnants, thread
![](https://leahvirsik.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/Virsik_AllTogetherNow01-684x1024.jpg)
All Together Now 01, 2020, jean remnants, thread
![VirsikLeah_byLauraVanDuren](https://leahvirsik.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/VirsikLeah_byLauraVanDuren-1024x1024.jpg)
Leah Virsik in her studio. Photo: Laura Van Duren
The Japanese word for cut, kire, is more connected to aesthetics than its English counterpart. The aim of cutting is to create ma, a word that roughly translates as negative space or betweenness. Jeans, made of cotton and indigo, are deeply rooted in slavery. Through an act of unmaking, I use Japanese shears to dissect and strip (kire) the functionality of clothing, focusing on the material’s meaning. This work speaks of my own complicity in systemic racial injustice. I expose seams from below the surface, cut and assemble individual flies, and roll up balls of jean strips. No longer a castoff, this material is imbued with potentiality and through my process of close examination (ma), it remakes me.
25% of the artist’s proceeds will go to the Ella Baker Center for Human Rights and the Equal Justice Initiative.