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A selection of Zoë Buckman’s, Every Curve, exploring the contradictory and flattering impacts of Feminism and Hip Hop, is now on view at NYC’s Museum of Arts and Design as part of its first major global survey of the phenomenon of garmenting.
Zoë Buckman, Installation view of Garmenting: Costume as Contemporary Art at the Museum of Arts and Design, New York
British multidisciplinary artist Zoë Buckman (b. 1985), whose compelling works in sculpture, installation, and photography explores themes of feminism, mortality, and equality. Buckman has exhibited nationally and internationally, including Paul Kasmin, New York City; Gavlak, Los Angeles, Camden Art Centre, London; and Goodman Gallery, Johannesburg, South Africa, to name a few. Since 2016, her body of work, Every Curve, has been a museum favorite and is now part of Garmenting: Costume as Contemporary Art at the Museum of Arts and Design (MAD), New York.
The installation of hanging vintage lingerie divulges Buckman’s infatuation with femininity throughout time. She says, “The antique undergarments — relics from our past and windows into cultural ideas of female objectification — are reworked using musical text from a particular time and place. The hand-embroidered lingerie features lyrics that refer to women from the iconic rappers Tupac Shakur and Notorious B.I.G. The text spans from the violent and misogynistic to the wholly sympathetic and pro-choice. This juxtaposition is witty in its provocation and empowered awareness while comparing the Janus-faced relationship between feminism and hip-hop in the 90s and today.”
Buckman declares that she is not disregarding the violent content but instead examining the dialogue between the two and finding a way to reverse the negativity and create something beautiful and thought-provoking.
(MAD)’s Garmenting: Costume as Contemporary Art, its first global survey exhibition dedicated to using clothing as a visual art medium, is on view until August 14, 2022.