Pop Star: Renee Piechocki
Abby Mendelson |
Wednesday, July 19, 2006
Standing in Carnegie Mellon’s Miller Gallery, Renee Piechocki cocks an eye at the photo she’s hanging – a woman all in blue, sitting on a blue chair – and reflects. “Saturday,” she sighs. “Saturday, I’ll sleep.”
It’s a busy morning in a busy time for her. By day, she’s the director of the city’s Office of Public Art, where she offers technical assistance to anyone making public art, and helps to create educational programming that raises awareness of public art. Her latest project: the drop-dead gorgeous Pittsburgh Art in Public Places: Downtown Walking Tour, a must-have guide for seeing the best of what’s around in town.
By night and weekend, she’s a very cool, very talented, very hot artist, now with her own show. Working with co-creator, New Jersey-based Tiffany Ludwig, and supported by both the Pittsburgh Foundation and the Heinz Endowments, since 2001 Piechocki traversed the country, interviewing and photographing 533 women, ages 4 through 92. Calling themselves Two Girls Working, Piechocki and Ludwig asked, “What do you wear that makes you feel powerful?” Anchorage to Atlanta, Boston to Seattle, and of course Pittsburgh, women came dressed in every imaginable outfit, army fatigues to tutus, slacks ‘n’ sweaters to dress-for-success. Boxers and belly dancers, cowgirls and CEOs, housewives and hockey players, their startling, amusing, touching outfits – and answers –– are on display through August 4 as Trappings: Stories of Women, Power and Clothing, CMU’s Miller Gallery.
A Long Island native, Piechocki came with her lawyer husband from North Carolina to Pittsburgh “because it’s affordable,” she says, “with really great art.” Gravitating to a North Side house near the Aviary, she had plenty of room – and time – to create Trappings. “Pittsburgh was an amazing place to work on this,” she says. “The city’s a huge supporter of the arts. If it weren’t, I wouldn’t have chosen Pittsburgh as a place to live.
“I worked virtually as a manager for Washington's Public Art Network,” she adds, “so I could have gone anywhere. But I came here because it’s affordable. There are great grant opportunities for artists. There are world-class exhibitions -- you don’t have to go to New York. And,” she looks out the gallery window, at a balmy July day with scudding white clouds, “I really love the weather.
“Pittsburgh,” she adds, “is a city where you can get involved – if you want to. It’s hard in other places. As a younger person you’re not always treated seriously or given opportunities. But here, young, diverse voices can be heard, can be in leadership positions. That’s good. That will affect the future of our city.
“Art is a magnet,” Piechocki continues, “naturally drawing people together, building communities, aiding economic development.”
What’s next for someone who never seems to stop? Trappings goes on the road, first to Wyoming. By October ’07 it will be published as a book. The Oakland version of Pittsburgh Art in Public Places is due out by fall. “First, though,” she says, “I’m rehabbing my house. That’s a whole other story.”
Trappings, Miller Gallery, Carnegie Mellon University, through August 4.
Key event: Two Girls Lecturing, Thursday, July 20, 6:00 PM.
Award-winning writer Abby Mendelson is the author of numerous books, including The Pittsburgh Steelers Official History and Pittsburgh: A Place in Time, a collection of neighborhood profiles available from The Local History Company. His last Pop City piece was on Squirrel Hill’s kosher restaurants.
Photos:
Renee Piechocki at her studio
"Trappings" at Regina Miller Gallery
"Trappings" at Regina Miller Gallery - images detail
"Trappings" at Regina Miller Gallery - catalog detail
All photographs copyright © Jonathan Greene