Exuvia

Always interested in evolution, indicators of the passage of time and costume, I created these hanging assemblages in subconscious counterpoint to the pure white dress forms from the Relics of Marriage project. What the two bodies share is their commentary on revealment/concealment; what women chose to show or hide during different periods of transformation. While the wedding dresses represent the hopes and dreams of youth, these black on black abandoned shells are more about a woman’s progression beyond that innocence, and touch on a sadness that may come as time passes, and youth is lost.

These assemblages and their related photographs represent the shedding of our expectations and the defenses that protect an outgrown life. The title of the series is inspired by the cicada, an insect which slowly emerges from its rigid outer skin, leaving behind its exuvia – a shell that no longer fits.