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Alice Lang
“Kneady”
April 14 – May 11
Opening Sat April 14, 4-7pm

Soft sculpture by its very definition is sculpture that is made from soft materials (usually stuffed fabric). My practice uses soft sculpture to explore the possibility for the grotesque to complicate notions of the decorative, and its relationship with stereotypical depictions of femininity. I use materials such as fur, satin and wet-look vinyl, for their associations with femininity and fetish. These materials are used to explore their association with the abject as well as reference the relationship between the feminine and the grotesque, in order to create tension between the familiar and the unknown. Accessories and signifiers such as bows, body ornament, frills and puffs, are made from these fabrics and spliced together with foreign and familiar elements to create new objects/organisms that are alluring as well as repulsive.

I have recently been interested in redefining the relationship/border between traditional wearable objects and the body, through the creation of fleshy wearable pieces (reminiscent of period clothing) that integrate and interact with the subject. Bonnets and bustles mutate, grow tendrils and attach themselves to their host like a strangler fig, overtaking their body to form a new decorative flesh. I am interested in how this direct interaction when documented through photography is able to reinvent the work in a context other than installation.



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