Allston Skirt Gallery announces the inauguration of its project room, "The Outskirts," adjacent to the main gallery in our new location at 450 Harrison Avenue, #303, in the South End. "The Outskirts" will provide a space for artistic projects that exist independently from our main exhibition area, though some interplay between the two areas is inevitable, and we hope it will be interesting for our visitors.

For our first project in The Outskirts, we have invited multi-media artist Pia Schachter to create an installation she calls "Bedroom," which the artist describes as follows:

Walking into "Bedroom" is a trip into a sex- and glamrock-obsessed teen’s room. The installation explores, with wit and empathy, the glitz and lustiness of youth. The bedboard is upholstered with a vinyl image of brooding Alice Cooper. This laminating technique was created by the artist when she was a teenager, making and selling vinyl accessories in boutiques like Fiorucci in New York and Boston. The twin bed is covered with a set of sheets printed with a patchwork of glam rock’s most lascivious lyrics - the sexual endorsements with which bands like The Sweet, The Tubes and The New York Dolls seduced a generation.

Clean and modern, Schachter’s work embraces trite American crafts. Her labor-intensive T. Rex hooked rug changes an album cover into a cult object. The bed is topped with a tubular pillow encased in a nude image of Iggy Pop with the words "Raw Power" in bold fuschia lettering. A repeated vignette of David Bowie in fuschia and aqua expresses in the wallpaper the god-like status of this icon.

"Bedroom" investigates the confusing years of teenhood and celebrates the hope and refuge we still find in rock and roll and its stars.

ALLSTON SKIRT GALLERY is now located at 450 Harrison Avenue, third floor, Boston, MA. We are open Wednesday through Saturday, from 11 a.m. - 5 p.m. For more information, please call Randi Hopkins or Beth Kantrowitz at 617-482-3652. Visit our website at www.allstonskirt.com.