Advocacy, advice and professional practice resources for the Australian visual arts, craft and design sector
Polly VAN DER GLAS
Submitted by: Polly VAN DER GLAS
Artist Statement
My art practice involves jewellery and small scale sculpture that is focused around the landscape of the body and its meanings. Since 2005 my work has centered on materials that were once attached to our bodies: human hair, teeth and fingernails. These materials were at one time part of an intimate, elaborate maintenance ritual. Hair and teeth were brushed, treated with colours and bleaches; fingernails were grown for show, painted and emphasized. When attached to the body, they are central to social values of beauty yet when they become disattached, the meanings they hold drastically transform. I am interested in examining what occurs when the beautiful body becomes the shed/dead body. How are ideas about beauty destablised? In sifting through this transformation of meaning and value, I have simultaneously responded to this beauty loss by exploring works that contain the body. For if the body is a container of narrative/discipline/private and public meanings, these spaces that the body is intended to occupy, create a sphere where these meanings circulate. The body containers when left unworn suffer a similar sense of loss as the discarded body parts, a kind of body loss. Handbags that are literally bags for hands, sculptures that are finger containers, and purses where human hair is the container punctuate this thought process. The objects are somehow dependent on the body, and these spaces create an unsettling site for discourse. The responses to these pieces and materials is particularly fascinating. By taking the admired, decorated body out of its context (re-assigning and re-attaching these parts), questions are exposed about ownership, boundaries and beauty. When shed, how much do we feel that these parts are still someone else? On the level of ownership and boundaries, these materials speak of stories from other peoples lives. Each tooth or hair lock has its own history. I find that theres almost a feeling of bonding when shed parts are mixed up, re-used, and re-appropriated. When merging our own rituals with these pieces that have their own personal private histories, theres a sense of commonality and human connectedness. I feel myself asking as I wear the tooth ring out to dinner; what was the last meal this tooth ate? Or as I get dressed in the morning and put on the plaited hair hoop earrings; what kind of hairstyle did these locks come from? New intimate relationships are created and body ownership deteriorates.
My art practice involves jewellery and small scale sculpture that is focused around the landscape of the body and its meanings. Since 2005 my work has centered on materials that were once attached to our bodies: human hair, teeth and fingernails. These materials were at one time part of an intimate, elaborate maintenance ritual. Hair and teeth were brushed, treated with colours and bleaches; fingernails were grown for show, painted and emphasized. When attached to the body, they are central to social values of beauty yet when they become disattached, the meanings they hold drastically transform. I am interested in examining what occurs when the beautiful body becomes the shed/dead body. How are ideas about beauty destablised? In sifting through this transformation of meaning and value, I have simultaneously responded to this beauty loss by exploring works that contain the body. For if the body is a container of narrative/discipline/private and public meanings, these spaces that the body is intended to occupy, create a sphere where these meanings circulate. The body containers when left unworn suffer a similar sense of loss as the discarded body parts, a kind of body loss. Handbags that are literally bags for hands, sculptures that are finger containers, and purses where human hair is the container punctuate this thought process. The objects are somehow dependent on the body, and these spaces create an unsettling site for discourse. The responses to these pieces and materials is particularly fascinating. By taking the admired, decorated body out of its context (re-assigning and re-attaching these parts), questions are exposed about ownership, boundaries and beauty. When shed, how much do we feel that these parts are still someone else? On the level of ownership and boundaries, these materials speak of stories from other peoples lives. Each tooth or hair lock has its own history. I find that theres almost a feeling of bonding when shed parts are mixed up, re-used, and re-appropriated. When merging our own rituals with these pieces that have their own personal private histories, theres a sense of commonality and human connectedness. I feel myself asking as I wear the tooth ring out to dinner; what was the last meal this tooth ate? Or as I get dressed in the morning and put on the plaited hair hoop earrings; what kind of hairstyle did these locks come from? New intimate relationships are created and body ownership deteriorates.
Art Forms
- Conceptual
- Craft and object
- 3 D (sculpture/installation/public art)
State
Victoria
Victoria
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