Sarah Muehlbauer
Video Still from ( PARA ), performance/video, 2009, dimensions variable
Video Still from ( PARA ), performance/video, 2009, dimensions variable
Artist Statement
As an artist I am drawn to textiles — a human invention satisfying both necessity and desire. Proximity to the body establishes intimate contact, while familiarity makes them nearly invisible. On a subconscious level, textiles act on the senses carrying a wealth of artistic, historic, and social meaning.
I work from the metaphor of clothing as a second skin, a layer analogizing the relationship between the internal and external reality of the wearer. Personal clothing choice moderates how we are seen in the world. Likewise, customary uniform reveals occupation, class, and power in society. From business suits, to work boots, to prison jumpsuits — garments symbolize the roles we all perform, ones that are selected or assigned.
The garments I create address corporeal identity, and the social and cultural constructions that shape its use. Recently I've worked with plastic, a ubiquitous industrial material that links progress with malleable form. Contrasting machine aesthetics with the organic body, these symbolic archetypes of fashion relate notions of self and environment that are constantly in flux.
To activate each piece, I collaborate with performers and sound artists. Years of movement training in gymnastics, yoga, dance, and aerials put me in a unique position to create bridges between genres. Using video as an artist’s tool and method of documentation, the projects undergo several permutations, from live performance, to Internet viewing and gallery installation. In both content and form, they challenge boundaries of classification, focusing on the common threads of lived experience.