Unwearable Art: Stone finger nails.
Three sets of stone finger nails include;
Optic Fiber Nails. Medium: Optic Fiber, Carrara marble insert, plastic case.
Tigers Eye Nails. Medium: Tigers eye, Carrara marble insert, plastic case.
Blue Lace Nails. Medium: Blue Lace agate, Australian jade insert, plastic case.
Dimensions: 200 mm x 60 mm x 170 mm.
Year: 2013
Recently exhibited at Stone and Jewel/Unwearable Art exhibition at the Lightspace Gallery, Academy of Fine Arts, Wellington.
Unwearable Art is the title of a new body of work in concerned with the lengths women go to to be attractive. Many of the clothes, shoes and other adornments are often uncomfortable to wear and can be harmful, yet these items are attractive in themselves.
The stone fingernails, eyelashes and lipstick are the more lighthearted pieces in this selection. The stones selected add deeper meaning to the sculptures. The bright coloured stone in the nails and lipstick is a processed form of silica (more commonly known as optic fiber) a manufactured material, combined with the classic marble from the quarry that supplied Michelangelo with stone, or pounamu the culturally charged stone of Aotearoa.