Category Archives: Exhibition: Selvedge, 2017

Selvedge, Space@Collins, March 2017. Curated by Alojz Babic

wearables:-

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often my projects take on the issue of ‘wearables’ both as a performative act, and also to comment on the use of animals and their bodies in the fashion industry.

 

 

wearable boobscapes

wearable boobscapes

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Studio boobscape cluster

post Selvedge – boobscapes & wearables … getting ready to do some new works!

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Top left: boobscape wearable for a performance at Psi2016 fleshy encounters
Top right: fleshlump neck-piece, made for Selvedge as part of Melbourne Fashion Festival, 2017
Bottom left: boobscape 3 casts each made in the shape of the leather symbol for Selvedge
Bottom right: experiments with textures for work on bio-fabricated fabrics for the work bloodlines

back in the studio

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Selvedge at Space@Collins has finished and it’s great to now have time to get back into the studio and make some new work – lots of ideas!

post Selvedge – boobscapes & wearables … getting ready to do some new works!
* fleshlump (pieta legs) at Space@Collins as part of Selvedge
fleshlump (pieta legs) looking into the legs
fleshlump (pieta legs) from entrance of Space@Collins – part of Selvedge, 2017
fleshlump (wearable rosary) in Selvedge, March 2017 at Space@Collins
Install photo of boobscape (leather symbol) upright for Selvedge, Space@Collins, March 2017
back in the studio – multiple boobscapes clustered

Boobscape (leather symbol)

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boobscape-with-threads

Finished up this new work – a boobscape in the format of the leather symbol – bringing the link between the slink series and boobscape closer together.  An iteration of this piece will be shown at Selvedge as part of Melbourne Fashion Festival.

I had been considering incorporating the sea anemones floor pieces – however, I think I will leave it plain and threaded – as there is more research work to do incorporating the issue of agricultural pollution on waterways/water-creatures, and those strange little half plant, half animal carnivorous creatures (anemones).

Foray into fashion

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VAMFF opening
selvedge artists enjoying the VAMFF opening

And so off we went to the #VAMFF [Melbourne Fashion Festival] VIP preview … I made a small wearable sculptural object – a fleshlump necklace.  Continuing my practice of re-purposing my sculptures, each time layering the subject of one onto the next – these lumps were made from off cuts from the Why Listen to Animals? speaking fleshlumps, which were in turn made from the full human-animal figure from beautiful little dead things.  They were strung on a latex ‘milk’ string from boobscape (udder matters).

Selvedge – boobscape

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The new boobscape has finally finished – cast no.1 fairly simply with hanging rings for Selvedge #VAMFF, in March 2017.  I will take some better photos when the sun comes out!  In this work the boobscape has been laid out on the leather symbol and brings together the slink & boobscape series (slink: a type of luxury leather mostly taken from fetal calves).  This boobscape makes the connection between the gendered exploitation of non-human animal bodies and the production of leather materials.

Below:  photos just after pulling the cast off the mold. I love the rich colours of the reverse where latex meets plasticine – it would be great if it stayed so lush, the reverse of casts are always fascinating – this one reminds me of the sandstone rock formations around Sydney and fossils.  When I laid it out on the table to powder it and pick of bits of non-skin –  it felt like I was treating/tanning an animal skin, as the size and scale is like the whole tanned skin of a calf (the leather symbol coming from the simplification of the tanned skin of a large mammal).

Work in progress

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Utilising these hot days to get some Plasticine mouldmaking work done – possibly for a new wall work for Selvedge [Melbourne Fashion Festival ‘VAMFF’] – using the leather symbol as the outline, the work extends the slink and boobscape series.   While these seem to be mostly human-animal breasts, they push the boundaries between the human and non-human breast, some are small and young – a nod to the age of farmed animals when forced breeding commences, they are multiple and pressed together, they droop and extend.