This exhibition consists of two projects by artist Vivan
Sundaram, when you walked into the room, you first see the Gagawaka, and then on
the right is the Postmortem exhibition. The
title of the exhibition, “Making Strange,” was actually a quote from German
poet Bertolt Brecht, which means “estrangement” or “defamiliarization,” (Henry)
in contemporary times. Indeed this two projects give strong impressions of the
sociological idea of “making the familiar strange,” because sometimes we need
to see things beyond our normal lense of thinking in order to challenge the
status quo.
Gagawaka is a collection of sculptural garments made
from recycled materials and medical supplies, when you look at all the eccentric
garments that put together on the mannequin, you will instantly think of the
pop singer Lady Gaga who is famous for her outrageous dressing style. Turns out
the Gagawaka was actually an invented word referencing the pop queen Lady Gaga
and the 2010 FIFA World Cup song, “Waka Waka, which represents the artist’s own
fictional brand and line of “strange” haute couture” (Henry). By strange, Sundaram
literally uses ordinary materials such as plastic cups, sanitary napkins, bras
and some hospital surgical supplies like bandaging, plastic pill packs, masks
and X-rays. Sundaram combine these normal everyday materials together to
make garments that seems unusual and unlikely.
One of the pieces, the “Wedding Outfit” is
particular striking to me. The Wedding Outfit is a men’s suit made out of
women’s sanitary napkins. Sundaram stitched and quilted together these menstrual
pads in a separate pants and jacket design, so the color of red and black can
also be seen under the linings of the sanitary napkins. Sundaram successfully
made the normal strange, by using something that are only used exclusively by
females on a monthly basis, and put the garments on a male’s body. When I saw
this piece, my inner sociological self came out, I think that Sundaram is
trying to tell viewers about the societal norms that we inherit and reproduce every
day. The gender norms of how women’s feminine products and menstrual cycles
should be hidden and how men are not supposed to dress in feminine wardrobes;
are all challenged by Sundaram.
The second project Postmortem, gives a more striking and even haunting experience.
Postmortem is a collection of sculptural objects which include mannequins,
tailors’ dummies, wooden props, and anatomical models (Ghoshal). Very
different from Gagawaka which puts exotic garments on the body; Postmortem strips
the mannequin and portray its inherent nakedness. In the documentary that Sundaram
filmed and played in the exhibit, he talked about the idea of Postmortem is to
reflect how modern society, humans use garment to cover their own body, with
the reconfiguration of modern art, Postmortem allows us to look inside the body,
but often times we found its hollow form the inside. Sundaram says that he wants
to raise question about human existence, about the inside and outside, how
human subjectivity is developed and what is the price that we have to pay. I
recalled the our lecture about MedTech and Art, the disembodiment of the
mannequins shows the fragility of the beauty that we seek, just like plastic
surgeries, human body can be torn apart, the outside can be changed, but the
hole inside will bound us forever even after death, just like the mannequins.
Works Cited
D'mello, Rosalyn. "INTERVIEW: Vivan Sundaram on." Artinfo. 9 Nov. 2013. Web. 14 May 2015.
Ghoshal, Somak. "Art | Savage Beauty." Livemint. 16 Nov. 2013. Web. 14 May 2015.
Henry, Rowanne. "Making Strange: Gagawaka Postmortem by Vivan Sundaram." Web. 14 May 2015.
Jumabhoy, Zehra. "Vivan Sundaram Talks about GAGAWAKA." Artforum.com. 20 Dec. 2011. Web. 14 May 2015.
"Making Strange: Gagawaka Postmortem by Vivan Sundaram | Fowler Museum at UCLA." Fowler Museum at UCLA. Web. 14 May 2015.
Oommen, Elizabeth. "Fashioning Eccentricity as Couture." The Sunday Guardian. 28 Dec. 2011. Web. 14 May 2015.
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