Bodies of Time
2022, Wearable Sculpture
Multi-layered, floor length tunic dress of muslin with cyanotype prints of 4 female figures from 1900-2022.
This project was developed in response to the prompt theme, camouflage and mimicry. When I think about camouflaging myself I immediately think about the body and the human form. My project began with my wish to create a piece that distorted the human form. As I began to develop the design of my garment I thought through the defining factors of human bodies, thinking through the notions of body that suggest a person’s gender, age, size, weight, or shape. As a young woman I particularly am consumed by thoughts of what a woman’s body looks like, how it is “supposed to look”, how mine looks, and all the variances in between. If I was to make a camouflaging suit for myself in response to all these thoughts I realized it would be a suit that allowed me to live in the ideal body form in order to exist within the beauty standards. In thinking about the ideal female body form I wanted to highlight the shift of differing forms that have been popularized over various decades. I chose to use images of four women who throughout history have been recognized to have the “best” or most idealized shape of their time; Kendall Jenner for the heroine chic, Kim Kardashian as the epitome of curvy and voluptuous, Camille Cliffson, the original Gibson from the 1920’s that sports a corseted waist and bustle, and lastly Venus’s rounder, fuller body as painted in Birth of Venus by Botticelli during the mid 15 century.
The women’s bodies are printed onto the dress using cyanotype, a printing method that is light sensitive highlighting the temporality of each body form’s popularity. The dress is made with a simple natural cotton muslin in a sheath dress style not conforming to the wearer’s form and serving as a mask of their body. The dress is made with five layers sew together at the shoulder seam. There is one blank one as the top layer and four underneath with each of the women’s bodies printed on them. The wearer hence has the ability to flip through the layers of ideal bodies and select one that serves to camouflage them into the space they’re in. I call this project Bodies of Time and it serves as a critique of these idealized forms and the way women are pressured to conform to beauty standards. As a young woman that struggles with my body image and body positivity this project was really important for me to show myself and others that your body fits you and to emphasize the comedy of these extreme bodies and expectations.