London-based artist Sinéad O'Dwyer is bringing her signature wearable silicone sculptures to New York City. Called In Myself, the solo exhibition, open now at Waves and Archives, explores what it means to be considered a "fashion artist."
O'Dwyer builds fiber-glass molds by life-casting human forms. She then uses silver, silk and silicone to complete her colorful pieces. While beautiful and captivating to look at, the pieces grapple with a very difficult topic. The show's press release describes it as "a broader investigation of the flawed patterns in which women privately relate to their bodies as visible objects."
The pieces often adorn the bodies of models, performers and friends in photographs and fashion films. These variations of form serve to challenge the binary dichotomies that fashion has historically been reliant on. By grounding the pieces in the experiences of close friends, O'Dwyer, whose work has found her partnering with fashion darlings/musicians such as Kelsey Lu and Beth Ditto, calls attention to the body's agency as a subject.
In Myself is the inaugural exhibition of Waves and Archives, the first fashion gallery of its kind. Founded by Manan Ter-Grigoryan with Julian A. Jimarez Howard and Marianna Kosheleva, the gallery "aspires to nurture an environment where fashion artists can operate as contemporary artists, by exhibiting fashion, writing about fashion, and providing access to the existing knowledge that can be applied to the studying of fashion as art."
Sinéad O'Dwyer's In Myself is open now at Waves and Archives, 117 Beekman Street, and will be on view through April 3.
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