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.
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