bow (lean pink), bow (lean yellow 1), and bow (lean yellow 2)

"Over the last two years, we have experienced a bending of our bodies and our emotions around the pandemic. Many of us have had to lean on other people, sometimes to the point of breaking. I see these three sculptures as bodies, leaning against the wall for support. Notice the bottom edges, clinging to the floor, as if trying to latch on, to not slip away. What that bow does to the material, where it distorts the view, changes your perception, and that’s important to me. I want to represent glossiness, neon brightness, sexiness, but with that also the ugly, quite visible in the skin peeling away behind the acrylic. There is a constant dialogue in the materiality of my work, not just between the natural and the synthetic, but also in the translucence, seeing through the foundation and realizing that it’s a mess beneath the veneer. Imagine these are people, tired, trying their best, and reconciling the beautiful with the grotesque in our everyday existence."

Katherine Mitchell DiRico