Julia Mandle’s artistic practice intends to create moments of pause so that audience-members may take time to contemplate their environment.  Often occurring in public space, Mandle works within a performative frame, but blends modes of fashion design, architecture, sculpture, installation, and craft.

‘I divide my performances into three categories defined by scales of space. The largest scale is comprised of the outdoor urban space projects, such as our performances VARIABLE CITY: FOX SQUARE (2003) and KALCH (1998), the latter of which was performed over six city blocks between Canal Street and City Hall. The second spatial scale is what I call “architectural scale,” such as FEAST (2003), which was performed inside a large sloped house that I designed and was constructed within a 10,000 sq. ft. building in Brooklyn. The third scale is smaller, which I call “interiors or rooms,” such as WHEN (1999), which was performed by two women inside the Broadway storefront window of the New Museum of Contemporary Art.

I’ve added a fourth scale, and am playing with the term “take home,” which is a humorous way to convey a portable mode and perhaps an intimate one for audience experience. Within this smaller scale I would include my new line of clothing, called “PerForm,” which are wearable, soft geometric shapes based on our recent costumes.’

*from interview with Nick Stillman for NYFA Quarterly – Winter 2004