Digital Scholarship@UNLV

Title

Power Suit

Authors

Clarice CudaFollow

Document Type

Creative Work

Publication Date

2018

Abstract

The focus of this project began in utilizing hair as a vehicle to investigate rituals associated with mourning, grief, and the liminal space that exists between life and death. After an in depth search into the cultural, physical, spiritual, and material aspects of hair, I enacted process and labor to create a sculptural form that performs in response to grief.

I chose to work with acrylic hair, as it exists in a space between the real and unreal, and visually is absorbed as the uncanny representation of the separated body. I wanted to discuss the body, while emphasizing its absence. What covers and shelters our skin? Clothing, our clothing outlast our bodies, our hair outlasts our bodies. I made a gown of hair, seven feet in length, standing five feet tall. I wove this gown of hair, and rendered it inaccessible, or rather impenetrable. The collar tight to the neck, doubling as a source of protection and suffocation. The dress, a queen’s gown. As little girls, women dream to become queens, not because of the beautiful clothing, but because of the absolute positions of power, control, authority, and respect. This piece “Power Suit” is an attempt to take back the power and control that grief inflicts over the bodies that are left living in the wake of loss.

Keywords

Mourning; Hair; Ritual; materiality; Uncanny; Body; Performance; Sculpture; Mourning jewelry

Disciplines

Art Practice | Fine Arts

File Format

application/pdf

File Size

83 Kb

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

Repository Citation

Cuda, C. (2018). Power Suit.
Available at: https://digitalscholarship.unlv.edu/award/32