Inspired by my own experiences, my work captures moments in women’s lives when issues of appearance, self-esteem and assimilation became paramount due to physical restrictions placed on their bodies, either by fashion or by medical necessity.
I have always been interested in narrative storying through framed images. I have a background in both photography and film. As a photographer, I captured "frozen" moments in a single time frame; as a filmmaker those moments became sequenced in a series of moving frames. Creating art through a form of bookmaking was a natural extension of those ideas allowing me to draw further elements of my personal experience into the art process.
My personal history growing up with spinal curvature (Scoliosis) has informed my interest in women's shapes and their body images. During 1970's, from the ages of 13-18, I wore a brace 23 hours a day. In 1984 I again found myself again in a corseted back brace, but this time for a herniated disk. Throughout these years, as my spine was being corrected, I developed a sensitivity to "correction" and the need to fit in.
I first started exploring these ideas in paper. In these Paper Books I used sheer materials to create visual and literal puns involving structure, both apparent and concealed. Gradually, I wanted the stories to become more 3-D, to become part the fabric. As the text thread is interwoven with the thread of the fabric, I felt it gave the textile a voice in which to tell the stories. These projects have become the continuing series of Corset Works.
The Bed Works were created out of my interest in the history of housework. Because women have always been associated with the home, hearth and all the domestic duties that belong to them, this project was an extension of my fascination of women being confined and defined certain societal walls – but this time, within what has been referred to in Victorian times as the “Guilded Cage” – their homes.
My art works takes the a form of an “Artist Book,” as I feel that the definition of a "book" can be flexible. A narrative can unfold throughout layers of pages, with or without a traditional spine supporting those pages. The layers on the beds are supported by a four spines, rather than a single column. The legs and frame of the bed create four corners in which to support the mattress and bed coverings. In the case of the corset work, the pages may not always be connected by traditional book spine, although the idea of one having a spine is implied by the fact that the corset is used to support one’s own spinal column.
As digital technology expands our world, allowing us to experience things immediately, I realize my work asks the viewer to slow down and be brought into a more intimate space of historical stories and tactile experiences. Taking the time to slow down to untie all the ties of a corset, or unfold the covers on a bed in order to read all of the text, is part of the contemplation and therapy of the process. Reading the stories of those who came before us, and doing the labor to do so, resonating what women have been experiencing day after day throughout the centuries, whether it be dressing or undressing, or doing housework.
Copyright © 2023 by Tamar Stone. All Rights Reserved.
No images may be reproduced without the expressed written permission of the artist.
Background
Contact
If you would like any hi-res images of the photos on this website, or if you have any questions or comments, please feel free to contact me: tamarstone@pipeline.com