{"id":270,"date":"2024-08-05T21:31:09","date_gmt":"2024-08-05T21:31:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/artscisalon.com\/emergent-gallery\/?page_id=270"},"modified":"2024-08-05T23:15:32","modified_gmt":"2024-08-05T23:15:32","slug":"creatures","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/artscisalon.com\/emergent-gallery\/creatures\/","title":{"rendered":"Creatures of Future\/Past"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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An Installation by Kaethe Wenzel
Material consultation and Fabrication by Spencer Barclay<\/p>\n\n\n\n

September 26-29. TTT 2023 Malta. Malta Society of Arts. Palazzo de la Salle, Valletta. <\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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Creatures of Future\/Past is a sui generis wardrobe containing bone costumes created by Berlin based interdisciplinary artist Kaethe Wenzel. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In this installation, Participants are encouraged to explore and wear a collection of intricately made garment made with fabric and rescued animal bones. The result is a visually stunning interactive installation which can be also performed by the audience<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Over several months, Wenzel worked in Europe and Canada with Roberta Buiani and Spencer Barclay to tranform the original Emergent gallery into a wardrobe of the future which could be easily transported and opened to the public to maximize participation<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

The Bone Costumes simultaneously speak to the past and to the future. The idea originates from the artist\u2019s research into historical corsets – designed to press natural bodies into ideal shapes, much like sculpting tools. Crossed with contemporary fashion technology, they evolved into exo-skeletons, half-organic half-mechanical apocalyptic outfits. These Bone Costumes take up our ambiguous relationship with animals \u2013 the mass consumption of living beings, the ongoing extinction of species, but also the longing for human-animal communication. When worn as wearables, they evoke the complex cultural knot of imagery of death and consumption, of animals as friends, relative, and Other, of separation and merging, and shamanistic ideas of energetic human-animal connections.
While we consume and use domestic animals like industrially produced wares and drive wild animals into extinction by refusing to concede them a minimum of space and resources on the planet, we also dream of harmony between the species. Many concepts of paradise across cultures include the idea of peace between humans and animals. SciFi and popular culture fantasize about extraterrestrial intelligence in outer space, while our industrialized lifestyle is resulting in the mass extinction of the only other known conscious beings in the universe right on our planet.<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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Front view of the installation. When the wardrobe is closed, spectators can explore its content by observing the garments through two peeping holes located at the front and on the side, as well as through the embossed Emergent lid<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
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The box can be open to lay its entire content on a flat surface, thanks to a series of strategically-placed hinges inspired by the style of the venue (a dungeon). Once open, the gallery reveals the objects: the viewer can wear them and engage in interaction and performative gestures<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
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opening of the front view to reveal the content of the gallery<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
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side view of the interior. A projector secured at the bottom of the gallery projected a video of the process of making the bone costumes<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
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Once the gallery is open, participants can try one or more items on display<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div><\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
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One of the garments on display<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
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