Event 3: Making Strange

Today I visited the "Making Strange: Gagawaka + Postmortem" exhibit by Vivan Sundaram at the Fowler Museum. The exhibit contains art that combines the human body with fashion to create very interesting pieces. It is also supposed to contain social commentary about aging and illnesses, but I did not interpret the exhibit in this way. Below is a picture of the entrance to the exhibit, and also me with my Fowler Meseum pass.

I thought the pieces were very eye-catching and provoking. The first objects that I really noticed were part of "Postmortem", and they played with the human anatomy to create disturbing statues.

While some of these pieces (especially the one with the hand coming out of the head) were hard to look at initially because of how disturbing they seemed, they actually showed very interesting ways to rearrange parts of the human body. After looking at the pieces some more, I noticed that I found them to be extremely intriguing. Unfortunately, I do not see how they create commentary on illness and ageing, but perhaps I am missing something. I can definitely say however that these pieces are memorable.

On the other hand, the "Gagawaka" exhibit contained haute couture fashion. Below is one piece that I found to be interesting.

This is supposed to be strange haute couture fashion, and I can definitely see that. The material and shaping of the dress makes it seem like it would be impossible to wear in reality, which is similar to some other haute couture pieces.

I think the combination of "Gagawaka" and "Postmortem" was interesting, because they do not seem to be related at all. The only resemblance I noticed between the two exhibits is that they were both eye-catching, original, and shocking. Overall, I would recommend this exhibit to students if they want to see something interesting and provocative. However, I did not fully understand the meaning of the two exhibits, and that is why I cannot recommend "Making Strange" to people where it is not as easy to visit the Fowler Museum. I think the title of the exhibit agrees with my description of the pieces: strange.