Lou Baker, The presence of absence, 2019
Title: The presence of absence
Year: 2019
Artist: Lou Baker
Materials: used clothing, shoes, washing line, pegs
The clothes we choose to wear are part of our identity; they’re often thought of as a second skin. Soft and impermanent, they remind us of our mortality. When worn, they take on the shape of the wearer and become sculptural; empty, they suggest absence. Hanging them increases this sense of loss.
Each article of clothing holds a trace of the person who has worn it, their smell or a memory; that other, distinctive smell of second hand clothes provokes a darker range of responses - abjection, claustrophobia and contamination anxiety.
Year: 2019
Artist: Lou Baker
Materials: used clothing, shoes, washing line, pegs
The clothes we choose to wear are part of our identity; they’re often thought of as a second skin. Soft and impermanent, they remind us of our mortality. When worn, they take on the shape of the wearer and become sculptural; empty, they suggest absence. Hanging them increases this sense of loss.
Each article of clothing holds a trace of the person who has worn it, their smell or a memory; that other, distinctive smell of second hand clothes provokes a darker range of responses - abjection, claustrophobia and contamination anxiety.
