Event 2: Gagawaka + Postmortem by Vivan Sundaram

In May 8^th, I visited Fowler museum at UCLA. Even though I often went to the location closed to UCLA museum, I did not entered there. I was amazed there were many attractive works of the art than what I imaged.

It was the concept of “Making Strange: Gagawaka and Postmortem”. This is related with the bodies of sculpture and assemblage projects by the Indian artist Vivia Sundaram. There were twenty-seven unique sculptural garments which were made by recycled supplies and medical materials such as bandaging, plastic pill packs, and X-rays.

At first, I saw “Diva R-E-D” which was made by many bright red brassieres and combine with fabrics and laces. It was a very fantastic idea because the padded bra cups was used as the “dress fashioned”. As long as I see it closely, it is difficult to recognize “brassieres”.

I preferred this product which was made by “sponges”. The color gradations red, orange, pink, light green and blue would be attractive to many women. The dress did not look like “sponges” as much as I would like to try it on as the fashion. I was amazed that Sundaram expressed the combination between “fashion” and “industry (recycled materials)”.

Personally, these three recalled me of the topic of “medicine and art”. The first one was called "Scake-shell (2011)", which is made with X-ray film. It was translucent and shiny black. Sundaram attempted to twist, roll and cut this X-ray film to express an "elegant" dress.

The second one is called "Poisoned Robe (2011)" that is nonwoven, micro-dot fabric surgical cap and foams.

It was difficult for me to expect the concept of “Poisoned Robe (2011)”, but my eyes were glued on this artwork because Sundaram’s creativity surpassed my imagination. 

At last, it is "Pill-fill (2011)" which was made by pills, capsules, glass-nylon and zipper. The inside of the shape like human was filled with lots of "pills". When seeing this artwork, I felt that "human cannot live without pills". From ancient period, human has been seeking for longevity or eternal life.

Sundaram gave me the message that human lives in "two cultures" as Vesna's lecture. His artworks showed the combination between the science (the industrial materials and medical supplies) and the art (fashion) very well. I got the chance to consider how human has possibilities and the fragilities of the body. I recommend this free exhibition! You can obtain many imaginations from Sundaram's artworks!

Work Cited

1.      Sandaram, Vivan. "Making Strange." Fowler Museum at UCLA. Web. 25 May. 2015.

http://fowler.ucla.edu/press/press-release-making-strange-gagawaka-postmortem-vivan-sundaram

2.      "Vivan Sundaram." ArtForum. 20 Dec. 2011. Web. 25 May. 2015.

 http://artforum.com/words/id=29889