Irene Briant

Resplendent
PhD exhibition
9 to 11 February 2007
Plimsoll Gallery, Hobart

Resplendent is a body of sculptural work and drawing which explores ideas about the human body and its dress. It is based on the premise that a dressed person is visualised and understood as one coherent image, rather than as two separate components of body and clothing. The creative interplay between these elements accounts for the vitality and ongoing sensual and intellectual stimulation inherent in the body/dress partnership. The work was inspired by the conviction that forms and structural processes of clothing can be paralleled in sculpture.

The conceptual background to the work focuses on the idea that dress significantly extends a person’s image. This image is conditioned by conventions of pictorial representation of the clothed body. Traditionally found in painting and more recently in film and advertising, these depictions emphasise the frontal aspects of dress. Consideration of the phenomena of mirror reflections and shadows reinforce this two-dimensional pictorial concept. The work is about dressing up - presenting oneself as an image, to be looked at and admired. A further field of enquiry focused on the extent to which materials and forms of clothing engender feelings of sensuality and eroticism. Ideas were developed and consolidated through constant experimentation with materials and processes. Of major importance was the use of rich, tactile fabrics as a potent means of evoking both body and clothing.

The work combines the visual impact of the clothed body with juxtapositions between two and three-dimensions. The contrasting of two and three-dimensional elements within the one work, or the gradual transformation of one dimension into another, were developmental strategies resulting in a diverse range of forms. These include fully three-dimensional, free-standing structures and works suspended from the ceiling or attached to the wall.

Irene Briant

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