SIENNA REID | SIENNA REID ~ PAINTINGS AND DRAWINGS | Corsets
I have been creating images based on the corset since 1996 and it is a theme which endlessly fascinates me. It gives me an exciting object with which to explore the dynamics of the artificial control of the natural female form by means of not only clothing, but by diet, exercise or lack there of. By elimination the representation of the body and focusing on the corset itself and it's various transformations throughout history I have created these images showing the forcefulness of our power to temporarily transform nature. The corsets become the body, the body becomes the corset; an animated form full of movement and a force of its own accord.
My examination of the corset comes from my interest in the way it can serve as a symbol of issues of societal control that women face in their daily lives; issues of sexuality, censorship, competition and classism. It serves as a symbol for size, shape, weight, fertility and eroticism. For better or worse ritual has led us to manipulate our bodies since prehistoric times for reasons of identity, differentiation and control. In our contemporary world the history of the corset is largely a forgotten one and it seems like an exotic throwback which pops up in the fashion world occasionally. But its history is bound with that of women, as it played a nearly continual role in how we shaped our bodies for 800 years. It lives on in the makeup of the female psyche, and has not gone away but instead metamorphosed and insinuated itself in woman's mental and physical battle with her own body.
I find the images of the corset can be positive or negative, beautiful or ugly and they take on a personality of their own, becoming somewhat like a new animal.
My examination of the corset comes from my interest in the way it can serve as a symbol of issues of societal control that women face in their daily lives; issues of sexuality, censorship, competition and classism. It serves as a symbol for size, shape, weight, fertility and eroticism. For better or worse ritual has led us to manipulate our bodies since prehistoric times for reasons of identity, differentiation and control. In our contemporary world the history of the corset is largely a forgotten one and it seems like an exotic throwback which pops up in the fashion world occasionally. But its history is bound with that of women, as it played a nearly continual role in how we shaped our bodies for 800 years. It lives on in the makeup of the female psyche, and has not gone away but instead metamorphosed and insinuated itself in woman's mental and physical battle with her own body.
I find the images of the corset can be positive or negative, beautiful or ugly and they take on a personality of their own, becoming somewhat like a new animal.
