Madonna;Whore/Emma Sacco/03.7.2011
Madonna;Whore investigates universal notions of mourning and sexuality through the use of veils and the un-weaving of painted and drawn lace imagery physically connected to the gallery walls, along with their respective implications and historical connotations, exploring their duality as well as their subversion. Emma examines both personal and universal cultural associations through an engagement with indexical signs using lace imagery as a signifier of important milestones, as its presence punctuates many experiences and social rituals, especially in relation to the lives of women. Interested in the paradoxical and dualistic notions connected with lace at baptisms and religious ceremonies, lingerie, virginity and sexual autonomy, as well as both weddings and funerals alike, Emma negotiates its collective impact on gender dynamics.
She examines the associative qualities of materials such as fabrics and milk-like washes, creating a tension through visual distortion or partial obstruction, functioning as both distancing and inviting. Emma will be changing and developing the impermanent installation by means of accumulation over the duration of the exhibition. Madonna;Whore will experience its own evolution through the cyclical additive and subtractive process of creating and destroying elements within the piece ultimately ending with its own symbolic death.
