Jana Sterbak was
born in Prague, Czechoslavakia and
immigrated to Canada as a teenager. Her art deals primarily with the subjects
of the human body, fashion and social/cultural conditions. She uses familiar
forms such as beds, stools, crinolines, and dresses and transforms them by
creating them out of unconventional materials. A series of hoop
dresses, one made with wheels controlled by a remote, and another that sends an
electric charge through the wearer, deal with issues of control, both having
control and giving it up. A representational backpack fashioned from stone and
leather straps is another piece that like her cage-like dresses speaks of
confinement.
Sterbak’s Vanitas
piece is a dress constructed from 50 pounds of flank steak stitched together
and then rubbed with salt. The dress was allowed to cure over a period of
several weeks and as the dress aged it went through a series of metamorphoses.
From its original fleshy fresh red meat state, to an increasingly brown decay,
to finally, a brownish grey jerky like appearance, this is a transformation
happening right in front of you. It was agreed that the institution that
purchased the dress would replicate it every so often and this further
reinforces the transformation theme. As for its core meaning, you have to look
no further than the title Vanitas, human vanity and the gradual
degradation of appearance over time.
No comments:
Post a Comment