Further explore the exhibition’s theme of semi-visibility through a slow-looking exercise related to this work.

Transcript
Narrator: Made of polyester clear-coated in resin, a sumptuous and silky gathering of patterned fabric drapes across the gallery wall, made of house dresses and kaftans loosely hanging yet frozen in place around invisible bodies. The fabric is pulled up into five hoods, shaped and partially projecting from the wall as if wrapped around heads but without a visible supporting form inside.

The forms resemble head coverings traditionally worn by Muslim women. If people were wearing these, they would only cover their head and upper torso. The fabric sits at various heights relative to one another, the five hoods evoking people of different heights huddled together. The five hoods form one unit, each draped as if around one’s head and over their neighbor’s shoulder. In their close gathering and with their relative heights, this sculpture could represent a multigenerational family of adults and children, gathered as if posing for a photograph of waiting for a bus.

The dress fabrics seem to flow into one another, being alike in sheen. And in every print pattern, black dominates or figures prominently. At the same time, there is a suggestion of individualistic choice in the covering of each invisible figure. Enshrouding the figure on the left, black fabric is dotted by tiny, varied flower blossoms. The hood is placed lower than the larger hoods at the center and higher than the two lower hoods—possibly representing a teenager.

The two larger hoods at the center include a golden leopard coat with black markings, and beside it and slightly taller the same black spots appear against a blotchy field of lime green and red magenta. To the left and right of this pair are two smaller low-lying hoods—on the left, bedecked in much larger white blossoms. On the fabric surrounding the small invisible figure on the far right, the leaves and frond sizes range to even larger, vibrant in color against the overwhelmed black.

But for the head coverings, there is no shape or suggestion of bodies beneath. Also, while it is not obvious how they may have been cut or reduced, less than the material of five entire dresses seems to be on display. It is a sculpture intending a statement or a question: Are they really here? What is their story?

Ver todos los episodios