Arachne
Culminating Thesis Work, 2019-2020
OCADU’s Medal Winner for Material Art and Design
Arachne is a work of costumes, investigating identity and the exhibition of artifice, and imagining the Greek myth into surreal forms. Informed by a combination of historical tailoring and experimental techniques, the story is broken down into three figures; the mortal Chorus, the God Athena and the monstrous Spider.
What is the feeling when the fourth wall is broken; the flash of real eyes looking through the eyeholes of a mask, an opening into a hollow body of a character? In Arachne the artifice of costume is exaggerated and at times exposed, as a device to reinforce the idea of changeable identity. A direct mask, which makes no attempt to fool the eye in its reality, yet still takes the form of a face and is worn on a person, is boldly abject: it implies artifice, a false identity. And behind that sense of falsehood, lies the eerie awareness of the unknown face behind it. One false and one hidden, neither face is fully realized.
All of the work was drafted from scratch, with material explorations from traditional corsetry and crinolines to uncanny needle felted masks. From delicate cross stitch to enforced buttons, the works were predominantly sewn by hand.