Conceptual Design

by KS Frazier

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Una Burke’s exhibit RE.TREAT captures human gestures associated with trauma. The gallery of forms evoke prosthetics and the shape of the female body. Braces, clamps and screws are tastefully depicted with brass stud”s on flesh colored leather. The constraint seems reminiscent of the corset and the damage women’s bodies have undergone for centuries in the name of fashion. These restraining flesh colored pieces give the idea that this constraint becomes a second skin to the female form something unnoticed and natural. Plastic surgery and the bandages for recovery, the wrapping effect of gauze is clearly depicted and neutralized. The Wearable art pieces blend beauty with control for a shape both magnificent and suffocating. The RE.TREAT exhibit is a study in form while capturing the physical and emotional complexity in constraint.

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October 27, 2009