deep wear

Went to the Chelsea galleries briefly tonight; became completely entranced by these rubber-encased lightbox mounted shirts and blouses by Jil Weinstock at Charles Cowles (Feb 7-Mar 8 http://www.cowlesgallery.com I snapped these pix on the run). I've seen lots of resin-encased objects, but I didn't know that rubber could have such depth and warmth. Jil W. talks about its closeness to "flesh"; I wish I could have touched them to feel that soft give; I wish that my skin was as luminous.

This picture is actually 90 degrees off, but I preferred to keep it off-kilter. The sepia and the bubbles in the rubber make me think of Civil War photographs, and my friend A. who was with me, said it reminded her of her grandmother's christening dress, boxed and yellowed. Childhood in amber. Why does this color spark nostalgic loss?

Up close, the runs of rubber and the queer sheen of the above shirt made me think of pond scum, of flitting bugs on the surface.

Frilly blouse: this one looks a bit like microscopic images of bacteria or x-rays of internal organs of a jellyfish. I usually think of a shirt as pure surface; this one, however, has murky depth. He sunk beneath his shirt?