Kanchan Gupta ‚Open and Close‘ walk through – FESCH.TV

Kanchan Gupta ‚Open and Close‘ walk through & FESCH.TV:

15 August – 7 September

‘Through its history of international trade, as a female craft, and a sustained presence in women’s fashion, lace is a complex signifier of femininity, colonisation and the Church. A symbol of status in pre-industrial revolution fashion, it has since assumed opposing associations with the erotic and the virginal. It adorns, conceals, reveals and fetishizes the female body. Cognisant of these knotted histories, Kanchana seeks to translate memories and traces of place in her work with the material. This encoding is evident in her material listing: “Oil paint skins burnt and stripped of lace.” Each work consists of up to 30 layers of oil paint, pigment and torn lace which are separated with fire and then peeled back to reveal a contemporary lace that is distinctly of Kanchana’s making.’