EncausticDress

While visiting the National Museum of Women in the Arts, I discovered this hanging sculture titled #781 by Petah Coyne. It depicts a dress, floating and suspended in the air, all pink and white and dripping sweetness.  Petah Coyne created it by pouring encaustic wax over wire and ribbons. I find this sculpture fascinating , as it appears to be dripping and melting (when is is clearly dried hard).  Moreover, the work seems to be both blooming and decaying at the same time.

Here is an except about the work from the NMWA website…“Influenced by her personal memories, literature, Catholic theology, and historical art such as European baroque sculpture, Petah Coyne explores distinctions between lushness and decay, beauty and grotesqueness. This untitled work is part of a series of white-and-pink wax sculptures that resemble rococo chandeliers, voluminous skirts, or dresses. It reflects how Coyne imagined womanhood as a girl: beautiful and extravagantly festive, like “floating on air.” After forming the underlying wire structure, Coyne tied satin ribbons to the wire and poured layers of wax over the surface.”