Language

English (en)

Date of Award

Spring 5-7-2025

Author's School

Sam Fox School of Design and Visual Arts

Author's Program

Art

Degree Name

Bachelor of Fine Arts (BFA)

Restricted/Unrestricted

Unrestricted

Abstract

My interdisciplinary art practice investigates wearable sculpture as a tool for emotional processing, identity negotiation, and embodied performance. Beginning with early works like a cape made from thrifted scarves—exploring how different wearers transform the same garment—I have expanded their role into vehicles for personal and collective meaning. Drawing from the work of artists including Nick Cave, Stan Brahkage, Lucy McRae, Lucy Orta, and Rebecca Horn, I examine how bodily concealment, distortion, and constraint can foster new modes of self-discovery.

Over time, my practice has evolved to incorporate performance, time-based media, and psychological frameworks. For example, my choreographed dance Enneagram: Beings of Light combined wearable sculptures, improvised choreography, and D.W. Winnicott’s theory of the "intermediate space" to explore fluid identity formation. My research also engages Jacob L. Moreno’s psychodrama and Victor Turner’s theory of liminality, positioning the act of wearing as both performative and therapeutic.

These inquiries culminate in my thesis project, Vessels of Protection, a multi-channel video installation that merges sculpture, movement, and immersive soundscapes. Tent-like garments act as sculptural sanctuaries, disrupting natural movement and creating liminal spaces where wearers can engage with memory, grief, and transformation. Through embodied performance and layered projections, the work challenges conventional notions of protection, proposing garments as containers for emotional exploration rather than mere physical shielding.

Across my practice, I position wearable art as a catalyst for catharsis, offering both wearers and viewers an opportunity to inhabit spaces of vulnerability and imaginative becoming.

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