Devices for Filling a Void

A solo exhibition by Lauren Kalman

January 24, 2019 – February 28, 2019

Devices for Filling a Void literally fill the voids of the facial orifices, but the title also implies a psychological filling of emotional or erotic voids. The title points to ideas about women being incomplete or lacking, requiring augmentation by men, objects, dress, makeup, and adornment.

Many of the pieces directly reference historic reconstructive surgery devices, but rather than coaxing the body into an ideal position they distort it through actions like expanding the nostrils and holding the mouth open. The work references objects of desire and beauty through the lexicon of jewelry and the uncontrolled body with forms similar to growths and medical devices. The ideal and its corollary, the grotesque, are implied in each piece.
The objects are built using gold-plated electroformed copper, fabricated brass and silver, and slip cast and hand built ceramics that are molded to the body and used to produce photographs.