Clothes are a carapace, a shell in which we meet the world and so are our bodies and skin, we are judged on them all.
Above: Sarah Sitkin trying on one of her suits from the exhibition at Superchief Gallery LA open until 31st March.
Sarah Sitkin in her first solo exhibition,
'Bodysuits' is giving people the chance to step into someone else's skin.
'Bodysuits' allows us to experience someone else's physicality and to remind us that the skin is not the self, we are more than our packaging.
As if the hyper realism of the suits were not amazing enough, the interior spaces of these suits are the hidden beauty, inner beauty homages and wisdom.
"The concept for this show was born when my grandmother asked me to make a mold of her toes. This led to a specific conversation about the physical attributes we personally remain insecure about. However, this quickly expanded beyond the personal, into the nature of the human condition as a meditation on the self. Our universal detachment with our bodies leads us through a lifetime of serious divides, between fantasy and reality for what our bodies should and could be. I do not believe the body defines who we are. It’s not really the essence of “us,” but functions more like a garment than a persona. The bodies in the show are direct molds from actual people. They have been recreated with extreme detail. Each suit carries it’s own weight, intended to communicate a burden or lack thereof for that particular body, such as the softness of youth, the stiffness of scar tissue, or the fragility of aging skin. I wanted “Bodysuits” to be an experience of the burden or pleasure of somebody’s physicality. The universal experience of insecurity is painful and often private, consolidated to a temporary solution and quick fix mentality that ignore the impending difficulties of age and breaking down. “Bodysuits” is a reminder of our impending mortality, allowing us to experience another's being with curiosity and empathy, remembering our skins are not the self." Sarah Sitkin
