CORPOREAL CONFINES:
“The Carriers and the Carried”
This body of work, entitled “Corporeal Confines,” was inspired by both the hard confining structures used to entrap human life (namely the prison industrial complex) in relation to the often soft cages that imprison animal life, such as nets and traps. When looking into the Prison system, I focused on the bodies forced into this system (Black America). Looking into imprisonment as one form of degradation of the black body used throughout time, I compared it to the sexualization of black femininity, which has also been used to demean black women both then and now. Within this body of work, I sought to represent this attempted belittlement of Black beauty and Black life, while simultaneously creating garments and narratives that were liberatory.
This was done in my first look, “The Carriers and the Carried,” by replicating the notion of the “soft cage” through macrame. This macrome gown is then met at the wearer's feet by a series of large, heavy, bulbous structures hung from the knotted garment, emulating the idea of a ball and chain leg iron. In contrast with the mobility-limiting nature of the soft cage and the ball and chain, the macrame gown is easy to step in and out of, and the large bulbous structures held by this garment can be easily removed by the wearer. The ideas of liberation found within these garments are replicated in the dramatic headpiece that grows from the wearer’s head. Within the headpieces, mirrored silhouettes of a Jezebel figure can be found. These silhouettes emphasize the aspects of black beauty that have been historically sexualized and degraded. By lifting these elements to the topmost portion of this look, I attempt to uplift this beauty rather than parade or demean it. Altogether, this body of work seeks to represent and reclaim, with the overarching goal of liberation.