Kalliopi Lemos
Memory in Velvet, 2012
Velvet, brocade, steel, synthetic hair, spray paint
232 x 119 x 80 cm
91 3/8 x 46 7/8 x 31 1/2 in
91 3/8 x 46 7/8 x 31 1/2 in
Copyright The Artist
Memory in Velvet (2012) is a tall sculpture of the torso of female figure, constructed as a hand-sewn soft sculpture in a amber-coloured velvet. Evoking aspects of a child’s hobby...
Memory in Velvet (2012) is a tall sculpture of the torso of female figure, constructed as a hand-sewn soft sculpture in a amber-coloured velvet. Evoking aspects of a child’s hobby horse it has steel springs for legs suggesting kinetic movement, a long pony tail of hair that hangs down to give the impression of a tail. It also has sexual anatomy crafted from patterned brocade. The exploration of the uncanny – the familiar revealed as strange – and the psychology of the body and domestic space is in a lineage of surrealists such as Dorothea Tanning and Louise Bourgeois. Lemos has talked about this piece as a rumination on the feeling that women’s memories are inseparable from, and held within, bodily experience.
