"Making Strange" Exhibit at the Fowler Museum

Vivan Sundaram’s exhibition Making Strange at the Fowler Museum displays his unique style through a fictional brand of “strange” haute couture. The exhibition consists of two works, Gagawaka and Postmortem, both of which depict a fascination with the human form and anatomy. To Sundaram, mannequins are plain and boring. He says that no one looks twice at a mannequin, so he set out to incorporate them into a provocative piece that transforms them into “sculptures.” He uses trashed garments and objects that “become part of a total configuration as [he] select[s] them.” These objects “acquire, finally, a sense of beauty” once they are formed into wearable pieces.

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Source: my image

The most striking part of Gagawaka is the materials Sundaram used to create the dresses and other articles of clothing adorning the mannequins. Many of the mannequins are clothed in items found in a hospital setting such as surgical masks, bandages, wrist guards, foil from pill packages, and knee braces. Some pieces are made entirely of old jock straps, dip-dyed tampons, and sanitary pads. Sundaram also makes use of “found” items such as bicycle tires, plastic tubes, and bits of old leather shoes. One of my favorite pieces was a bold red dress and hat made out of folded cotton bras.

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Source: my image

Postmortem works in dialogue with Gagawaka but focuses less on mannequin fashion and more on mannequin anatomy. Many of the pieces involve dirty, broken mannequins contorted into impossible positions or with limbs sticking out at odd angles. The mannequins are made of fiberglass and are hollow on the inside. Some of the mannequins have educational anatomy models inserted into them. For example, one displays a chest cavity opened to expose a spinal column. Another mannequin torso juts out from the wall at a 90 degree angle and is placed just high enough to be observed from below. The head contains a plastic model of the brain wrapped in bits of wire that hang down from where the face of the mannequin would be. The exhibition was made even creepier by the eerie, haunting music that played on a loop as I walked through.

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Source: my image

In spite of the creepy atmosphere, it was a pleasure to visit the exhibition. I thoroughly enjoyed the unusual and provocative materials, and I feel fortunate to be able to visit a museum in the middle of the campus. I would definitely recommend taking a look inside if you have even a few spare moments on your way to class or as a study break.

Here is a link to a gallery of the exhibition and some videos of the artist describing his process:

http://www.fowler.ucla.edu/exhibitions/making-strange-gagawaka-postmortem-vivan-sundaram