Bethany Shorb

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Artist Statement:

Schooled in both sculpture and photography, Bethany Shorb creates elaborate prop, costume and set constructions that blur the line between both editorial fashion photography and performance art documentation. Her recent Crash series refers to J.G. Ballard's novel of the same name with scenes titled by the lyrics of The Normal's song of similar influence, "Warm Leatherette." Technology, celebrity, sex, and death are perversely glamorized and fetishised in unison in a single explosion of red Swarovski crystals and inflated black latex rubber. Models, wardrobe and set decoration all retain the same visual and emotional weight, a hyper-saturated amalgamation exploring the interstitial space between the alluring and repulsive; hedonism and restraint; the seductive speed of expressways and the still finality of Last Rights.

ATMOSPHERIC/PRESSURES further pushes the prop/installation/garment tension. In Shorb's most recent work, the object once relegated to a simple set prop evolves into the finished work of art. Constructed exclusively from re-purposed vintage and deadstock materials, ATMOSPHERIC/PRESSURES is made almost entirely from surplus military meteorological balloons and tatted lace doilies. Each re-purposed material has been exposed to further surface treatment: hand-dying, painting and screen printing. The finished looks are augmented by period capelets and opera gloves that have also received similar surface transformation and embellishment. 

Although both deconstructed objects do stem from the same Victorian to Cold War era time period, latex weather balloons and crocheted lace doilies may at first seem like disparate materials to combine into a single garment, but both materials have a single vital unifying purpose throughout history: Protection.

Rubber has traditionally been used in protective clothing. From raincoats, boots, gas masks, hazmat suits to condoms, it is meant to repel fluids and prove impermeable to corrosives and viral agents. Latex gas balloons have been used throughout military history for purposes of scientific observation, espionage, distributing propaganda and transporting munitions - all with the main purpose of protecting one's territory while at war. From 1944-45 rubber balloons went on tactical offensive rather than simple reconaissance missions. The Japanese sent over nine thousand of balloon bombs buoyant in the jetstream to the mainland United States. Hundreds of Fire Balloons were never found and still may pose a threat as unexploded ordnance.

Still shrouded in secrecy, they were one of the few successful attacks ever on North America.

Latex rubber is also prevalent as a fetishised fashion object among BDSM practitioners, but has yet to be commonly used in couture and high fashion other than occasionally borrowing from and echoing the hyper-sexualized "second skin" or super hero aesthetic. Fetishists resist skin on skin contact, using the latex in a prophylactic like manner to protect, repel and transform the wearer into another persona. Here Shorb departs from recreating a caricature of a second skin, instead she isolates the body from the viewer through voluminous gather, ruffles and masses of goffered rubber "fabric." Color, weight and texture of the natural latex also play an important role in distancing ATMOSPHERIC/PRESSURES from typical fetish wear. Mottled dyed shades of ebony and coffee coupled with it's natural amber and honey color belie it's heritage in the dungeon, yet still offer the same protection from skin on skin contact. When stretched taught, it ironically looks far more like actual human skin -- rarely is it ever seen matte and not polished to a reflective shine.

Along with their understood decorative purpose, tatted and crocheted doilies, neck ruffs (and lace as a whole) were used in a similar, utilitarian and protective manner. The perforated fabric motif is still a fetishised object and fabric today. A Victorian and Mid-Century home staple, doilies and table runners isolated fine furniture surfaces from hot, droplet laden cookware and fabric upholstery from hair and skin emollients.

In earlier Elizabethan times, interchangeable ruffled collars would protect the entirety of the garment from food spills and human sweat. Completing many of the ATMOSPHERIC/PRESSURES looks, restrictive pilot's caps and exaggerated dunce-like caps and veils echo traditional religious head coverings seen in Islamic traditions, Catholic flagellant Penitentes and Spanish peinetas. The openwork in the lace or tatted veil creates a tension allowing the underlying surface to show through, but not to be touched.

Bio:

Bethany Shorb was born in Boston, MA in 1976. She received her Masters of Fine Arts degree in Sculpture, with an elective in Photography, from Cranbrook Academy of Art and received her Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in Sculpture from Boston University with minors in Art History and Photography. Her photography and product design work have been widely published in the United States and abroad; her visual art and product work has been exhibited throughout the United States and is included in numerous private collections. This past summer she taught several printing workshops in her Detroit studio and was recently reviewed in the New York Times and Wired. Her dj alter-ego has performed as half of "Dethlab" at the Guggenheim Museum in New York. Shorb also founded The Cyberoptix Tie Lab in 2006. As a designer of witty hand printed neckwear, she has applied her experience as a sculptor, couture, costume and graphic designer to transform a much maligned business necessity into a subversive object of desire. Cyberoptix ties and scarves are represented by more than 150 stores in a dozen countries: from Fred Segal in Los Angeles to Libertine in Western Australia. A paradox for the times, Cyberoptix Tie Lab operates one of the largest eco-friendly, solvent-free print shops in the country in Downtown Detroit, while providing a seditious, punky fashion statement for executives bound to the neck noose, and a sharply styled alternative for those who don't need to wear a tie, but choose to do so.