Please note that due to campus events, the installation will be temporarily inaccessible starting Friday, April 4, at 5 pm. Normal access will resume on Monday, April 7, at 10 am. Thanks for your understanding. 

Platform: Julia Gartrell, Repair Station, 2025
Wood, tiles, and mixed media
Commissioned by the Moody Center for the Arts, Rice University

As a sculptor working with found and repurposed materials, Julia Gartrell’s work has long revolved around themes of repair. In 2020 she started the Radical Repair Workshop to interact with different communities through the act of making. For the Moody Center for the Art’s Platform series, responding to the Humanities Research Center’s two-year-long conversation around understanding, challenging, and reimagining ideas of repair, Gartrell conceived a public sculpture that functions as an interactive repair station. 

The materials and tools affixed to the rectangular structure are predominantly yellow in color to attract and alert visitors to their presence. The surface tiles, chosen for their practical maintenance and weather resistance, are reminiscent of public spaces, especially areas of transit such as subway stations. Repair Station is equipped with useful items, including scissors, needles, tape, and buttons, as well as visual and audio instructions that are accessible via QR codes. These videos include excerpts from the oral archive that Gartrell has assembled of Southern craftspeople offering insight into traditions of making and restoring, especially in the context of Appalachian craft and culture. 

Through her project, Gartrell asks “What if repair were a public right?” while at the same time inviting visitors to use Repair Station’s free supplies and tools to repair items creatively or functionally. Repair Station is sited at an important juncture on campus, adjacent to Lovett Hall, which houses the Humanities Research Center, and near residential colleges and academic buildings. It is open to all who pass by and will be activated during the spring term through dedicated repair workshops.

The Moody’s groundbreaking Platform series brings temporary, site-specific projects to campus by inviting artists to respond to artworks, architectural structures, and research at Rice University. Platform: Julia Gartrell is organized by Frauke V. Josenhans, Curator, in collaboration with the Humanities Research Center. The installation is made possible by the Moody Center for the Arts Founders Circle.

About the Artist:

Julia Gartrell (b. 1986, Durham, NC) is a sculptor who uses repurposed materials to highlight traditions of making and restoring, especially in the context of Appalachian craft and culture.  Employing a creative and playful approach, she incorporates oral history, lore, and relics into her practice. In 2020, she started a mobile art project called the Radical Repair Workshop in order to engage with different communities through the act of making.

Gartrell received an MFA from the Rhode Island School of Design and a BA from Kalamazoo College. She has exhibited nationally and internationally, and has participated in residencies at Fine Arts Work Center, Provincetown, MA; Western Carolina University, Cullowhee, NC; Arrowmont School of Arts & Crafts, Gatlinburg, TN; The Power Plant Gallery at Duke University, Durham, NC; Ox-Bow School of Art, Saugatuck, MI;  and Ifitry Artist Residency, Casablanca, Morocco