Diana Jean Puglisi

MFA ’16 Fine Arts 2D

An invisible bodily chain reaction:

stuffed, stretched, off kilter, 

reshaped into a new state of being.

 

Shedding a skin of what once was.

Singular once again,

a pillow for new life.

Through a lexicon of propagated sewing tools, mutated fig leaves, reproductions of heirlooms, and abstract hints of clothing I create sensorial forms that live as surrogates for female bodies and their parts and functions. I use my experience to create feminist works, emphasizing the idea that personal problems are still, now more than ever, political problems with respect to bodily autonomy.

“Femme Body Cushions” is a series of self-portraits of my body in transformative states stemming from a poem I wrote in the fourth trimester. These stitched, cut, squished, and pinched soft sculptures explore deep binary emotions felt during pregnancy and motherhood, ranging from protection and endangerment, guilt and anxiety, and sexuality and intimacy, to arrive at tertiary emotions.



Diana Jean Puglisi is an interdisciplinary artist and educator. Puglisi received a 2017 New Jersey State Council on the Arts Fellowship in Sculpture. She has been artist-in-residence at Vermont Studio Center, Big Red & Shiny, and Gallery 263. Select exhibitions include: Bridgette Mayer Gallery (PA), University of Arizona Joseph Gross Gallery (AZ), Wavelength Space (TN), SOIL Gallery (WA), Deanna Evans Projects (NYC), Collar Works (NY). Most recently she was featured on Art Uncovered Podcast.

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