Thursday, January 26, 2012

transparent cloth...


I heard about this piece of Claudia Casarino in a review of the Venice Biennale and was super intrigued by the description of the 3 three dresses, one inside of the other. The title is Pynandi
(not a whore, neither a goddess nor a queen.) It photographs beautifully.

She has done a number of series and projects that involve clothing, usually made out of some type of transparent material, hung in multiples.


The project below is called uniforms and seems a powerful statement towards the mass.

One writer said this about her work: Using external surfaces such as doors, masks, walls, and clothing, she refers to a perpetually inaccessible and often intangible interiority. They are works of distraction, a continual deflection from the location of the 'real' body, putting fantasies, memories, and fabrication in its place.



I would love to read a statement from the artists own words about her work but there is not one on her website and her blog is in another language. I find her work to be an interesting exploration of femininity and the expectations within that.


This is an earlier work where she documents the process of herself getting ready. See more of her work here.

4 comments:

Claudia Casarino said...

Thanks a lot for the interest in my work.

I've written a statement in english some years ago, i must look for it, but what i basically say in it is that I tend to work with notions of feminity in contemporary society, often relating it to media and popular conceptions. I also work with political implications of territory and geographies, and migration.

The piece about the uniforms hast to do with the migration processes of the people in developing countries (for economic reasons) thus the empty uniforms.

And the one in Venice is called Pynandi which means barefoot in guarani, our native indigenous language.
That piece was developed thinking of the history of Paraguay and the role of women in the construction of our nation.
The three dresses are a simulation of being birth from the previous one, building a kind of column.

Well, I got carried away and written too much!

Gracias again!
Claudia

Joetta M. said...

Claudia- Thank you so much for commenting and educating me more about your work. It is truly lovely. I would love to read the statement too if you find it.
Knowing this information and motivation to these piece makes me appreciate it even more.
Joetta

Claudia Casarino said...

Thank you Joetta
And let me take the opportunity to introduce you to the work of a friend, Danica Maier.
She did a residency in Paraguay and worked together with traditional lace makers in the countryside.
You can see her work at http://www.danicamaier.com/ and the result of the residency at http://fundacionmigliorisi.org.py/2011/01/danica-maier/
She is american, but has been living in England for a long time.

Joetta M. said...

Thanks so much for the tip, her work is wonderful cannot wait to feature her:)