PARADIGM OF MOVEMENT
BARBARA L. KUHLMAN WEARABLE AND FIBER ARTS SCHOLARSHIP, 2021
Critique of work with Designer in Residence Mimi Prober
"SEEN AND UNSEEN"
Distorted Realities in the Time of COVID-19
Undoubtedly, the pandemic has distorted our perception of reality through the ways we view this precious, fleeting, vulnerable life we have and the people masked up all around us. The unexpected halt in our lives and loss of familiarity has jolted us into a discombobulated state of reality. Masked up, 6 feet apart, and an overwhelming sense of unease. The aftermath of days, weeks, and months of quarantining or working from home has birthed new realities that we never could have fathomed. While the face coverings we now adorn are worn for protection, these masks that we wear leave a sense of mystery and skepticism in the air because of the things seen and unseen about a person. Perhaps the figurative masks that we’ve always worn, hiding our insecurities and the mess in our lives, have now taken physical form.
My installation, conceptualized by this idea of distorted realities, is inspired by Cubism artwork. Cubism was a revolutionary new approach to representing reality, seen in many of Pablo Picasso and Georges Braque’s paintings. Cubism style artwork takes shape through different views of objects or figures together in the same frame creating compositions that appear fragmented and abstracted.
Within my installation are two cubism style mannequins, “6 feet apart”, made from bent wire of elementary shapes that each represent different fragmented pieces of the human body. Between the two mannequins hangs a dress made entirely from tulle and wired mesh. The dress is hung in a way in which the viewer purposefully cannot see the distorted wire mesh structure underneath the 37 yards of tulle that have been weaved through.
The viewer is encouraged to look from underneath the dress to see the exposed distorted wire frame interior. Upon viewing this piece, whether up close, across the gallery, or through the distorted mirror, the viewer’s perception of the piece is subject to change, paralleling the distorted realities we are living in due to the pandemic.