Karen LaMonte
to
Chazen Museum of Art 750 University Ave., Madison, Wisconsin 53706
press release: The Chazen Museum of Art will play host to a solo exhibition of sculptor Karen LaMonte’s breathtaking life-sized kimonos cast in glass, ceramic, bronze, and rusted iron. Titled Floating World, taken from her book of the same name, the show will be on view from August 11 through September 24, 2017.
Throughout her career, LaMonte has used clothing as a metaphor and as a way to explore the human body without depicting the human body. In 2007 LaMonte spent seven months in Kyoto on a fellowship through the Japan-United States Friendship Commission, studying all aspects of kimono production - from weaving to construction, function, rituals and meaning. The artist spent the ensuing six years researching and working in the studio complete the Floating World project.
LaMonte, an American artist now based in Prague, Czech Republic, worked with live models for her previous series, titled Nocturnes, depicting Western clothing. For the kimono pieces, she built a mannequin based on biometric data, selecting the measurements for the 50th percentile of 40-year-old Japanese women in the year 2000.“The mannequin is the exact average Japanese female,” said LaMonte, “the exact everywoman or no-woman.”A selection of nineteenth-century images of kimonos worn by actors and courtesans from the Chazen’s permanent collection will be included in the Floating World exhibition. These images are drawn from the museum’s celebrated collection of color woodcut prints.