My documentation¶
Welcome to my journal for Fabricademy 2025-2026. Over the next six-months I look forward to exploring sustainable methods of clothing the body by combining bespoke costuming techniques with digital fabrication. I am excited to expand my knowledge and practical experience around biomaterials, advanced 3D printing, and wearable technology, with a specific focus on their applications within the entertainment industry.
About me¶
I am an interdisciplinary artist whose work combines textiles, performance, and social practice. My practice has largely centers around costuming bodies and spaces. I am especially interested in exploring where clothing and textiles come from, how it is made, and how it is used to construct identity.
I am also an educator dedicated to teaching sustainable and inclusive processes to clothing the body for contexts in fashion, entertainment, and contemporary art. I lead the Textile Arts and Sustainable Fashion curriculums at Portland State University’s Schnitzer School of Art + Art History + Design.
My background¶
I was born raised in Kansas City, Missouri. I studied Fashion Design and Studio Art as an undergraduate at Washington University in St. Louis. I completed my MFA in Costume and Scenic Design at the University of Texas at Austin.
Selected Projects¶
I have worked on over 100 different projects over the course of my career. Below are some of my favorites. Feel free to visit my website to see other works: www.alisonheryerdesign.com
Costume Design¶
This production of The Difficulty of Crossing a Field was a stylized re-envisioning of the opera as a ghost story with the visual elements of the production responding to the libretto’s themes of distorted truth and memory.
Sanctuaries was site-specific opera about gentrification and displacement in the historically Black Albina district of Portland, Oregon.
Devised Performance¶
Vestige was co-created with Tere Mathern as part of a residency in Fall 2017 with New Expressive Works. The piece developed from open research and investigation of material and its relationship to the body. The performance used movement to continually transform fabric and paper, and create visually dynamic images that resonates with the collective psyche in varied ways.
Social Practice¶
Weave/Repair was a project developed for the Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art where participants wove a collective textile using meaningful fabric scraps and repurposed clothing. The exhibit featured looms of different scales that allowed people to explore different weaving techniques. For the event, I created a wall loom and weaving schemes that participants could interact with throughout the month. The project was featured at the first in-person reception following the pandemic in conjunction with Louise Bourgeois: What is the Shape of This Problem and became the catalyst for the Weaving Data exhibition that followed in the winter of 2023.
