GODIVA DEVICE
(DE) ILLUSIONS OF APPEARANCE SERIES
GODIVA DEVICE
or
SECOND SKIN
WEARABLE MANTEL OF AUBURN HAIR
2012
The concept, to reveal and conceal, is practiced in the work “Godiva Device” where a coat of hair matches the hair of the female wearer. It becomes a narrative work alluding to the folklore of Lady Godiva who rode naked through the streets while clothed only in her long hair. She is aware of her vulnerability with her exposed body – a spectacle in front of the facades and secretive windows lining a street to which a voyeur, “Peeping Tom”, spies on her. To a larger extent, it comments on the collected subconscious desire to conceal oneself within plain site from the gaze of others - or along the lines of John Berger, “women watch themselves being looked at.”
The Gaze: to conceal <<>> to reveal
“Lady Godiva took him at his word and, after issuing a proclamation that all persons should stay indoors and shut their windows, she rode through the town, clothed only in her long hair. Just one person in the town, a tailor ever afterwards known as Peeping Tom, disobeyed her proclamation in one of the most famous instances of voyeurism. In the story, Tom bores a hole in his shutters so that he might see Godiva pass, and is struck blind.”
Allerleirauh, Grimm Brothers: “She had, however, run into her den, had quickly taken off her dress, made her face and hands black again, put on the fur-mantle, and again was Allerleirauh.”
“...and once more made herself a hairy animal...”
“...and she stood there in full splendor, and could no longer hide herself. And when she had washed the soot and ashes from her face... and she was beautiful.”
All-Kinds-Of-Furs, Greece (origin): “... make a bed for me, and a shaft that goes ten fathoms deep into the earth...”
“...she slipped away and hid herself in her animal skin.”