Bodies from Apartment Installation

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In "Bodies from Apartment Installation", sculptor and performance artist Claude Simard explores two major themes of the last few decades: gender and identity. Humor and irony play important roles in his process. The Bodies are endearingly like puppets or stuffed animals in their generalization of form and lack of anatomical detail. On encountering them, most people’s first reaction is to laugh, but this humor is used as a bridge to more complex issues. Normally, clothing (including underwear) cloaks our nakedness. These union suits create a “naked” outer skin for the wearer, one that could be assumed by people of either gender. Stereotypically feminine technqiues – sewing and embroidery – were used to produce the Bodies, which have male genitals and body hair (of course, it is women who give birth to men). Questions about individuality and identity are also raised by the way the Bodies combine hand with machine sewing and juxtapose the mass produced with the custom made. Headless, hung as a group, they are uniform yet also unique. The Bodies were initially shown in a solo exhibition in Montreal held in an apartment, where they filled a small closet. A shelf above them held stacked piles of folded men’s underwear. To display the work in List’s apartment, Simard designed and had fabricated a rolling rack on which the Bodies could hang. Either method of installation is acceptable to the artist. During his two-decade long career, Simard has had solo exhibitions across the United States as well as in Canada and Italy. His works are in the collections of museums in Canada and the U.S., including the Guggenheim and Montreal’s Musée des Beaux-Arts.

Keywords

Clothing
Hair
Penis
Suit
Apartment
Abstract art
American
Sculpture
Installation Art