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Sample  : Ethonology/History, Fine Arts/Decorative Arts, Science/Technology

image de l'objet

© Aganetha Dyck; TOUTE REPRODUCTION INTERDITE / ALL REPRODUCTIONS PROHIBITED
Field Name Value 
Institution Leonard & Bina Ellen Art Gallery
Accession Number 999.99
Discipline Fine Arts
Object Category Fine Arts
Object Sub-category Installation
Object Name installation
Object Type scuptural
Quantity 1
Component Part Names dress; cage; shoe (2)
Number of Components 4
Artist/Maker Dyck, Aganetha
Title Flower Girl's Dress
Begin Date 1993
End Date 1995
Period 4th quarter of the 20th century
Unit Linear cm
Height 231
Width 40.6
Depth 50.8
Material wax, beeswax; dress; shoes; thread; metal cage
Technique assembled; suspended
Description The installation piece is made up of a girl's dress (shoulder-straps, bodice, and skirt), metal garment bag, shoes, and metal enclosure. Wires attached to the straps suspend the dress, with garment bag, above shoes placed on the floor. The work is hung within a three-sided assembly (top, left, and right) of five, square, silver metal grills that carry traces of honeycomb. The single-strap shoes are low-heeled and reddish in hue. The straps of the dress are decorated with leaf-like shapes, and the skirt is made with elliptical petal forms. The light-cyan colored bodice has floral embroidery and honeycombs.
Narrative From its very early stages, Aganetha Dyck's artistic career has centred on the transformation of the familiar, domestic object, from her series of shrunken sweaters to her canned buttons. More recently Dyck has been using bees to transform everything from cigarettes to shoes. Placing objects in the hive, Dyck waits for the bees to coat them in combs of wax, creating symbols, sometimes grotesque, of labour, community, and decay. Flower Girl's Dress is part of a series of these honeycombed objects called The Extended Wedding Party, in which Dyck uses the world of the hive and the Queen Bee to comment on the cult of the bride and female domesticity. All kinds of wedding paraphernalia, such as dresses, food, and shoes, have been subjected to the bees' work and then presented individually inside bee excluder screens. In this particular piece the absence of the human body is highlighted by the empty dress, and the ritual aspects of the wedding brought forward in the archeological, cultish appearance of the coated clothing, which is also partially spray-painted with gold like an ancient idol. (Martine Fournier, pour l'exposition Concordia Collects: Selected Art Acquisitions 1974-2000 / Un quart de siècle de collection d'art à Concordia)
Originating Continent North America
Originating Country Canada
Culture Canadian
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