Uniform-ing
I have a desire to cut out, hoard and reinvent what I recognize as sculptural, sexual and action-packed portions of imagery from everyday media. Segments of photographs in newspapers and magazines are ripe source material. Media is morphing rapidly and the shift from paper to pixels makes this a practice of capturing, or a rescue attempt for what I perceive as preciousness in print. There is a palpable greed to the activity – like being let into a department store and having an hour to hone in on what will be the most pleasurable and useful, and to pile the goods into my cart. I get deep satisfaction from culling the gems and leaving the rest ‘on the cutting room floor.
The imagery I am attracted to for this series are uniforms, parts of active bodies, fabric that is full of something, sporting gear, safety-wear, gowns, tools, suits, gloves, hair and shoes; I capture textural, sensual and culturally signifying forms taken out of context that have a sculptural presence and pit them together into contrasting amalgams that are unlikely, jarring and humorous. The solo show in 2013 at Klowden Mann that best evidences this work was called Pretty Limber - click HERE to see more of that show.
These sculptures-on-paper end up being mentally projected as life-sized, since they are taken from the photographs of life-sized things, therefore to me they are sculptures. I have also begun to play with the scale of the small works by blowing them up into large wall decals - they become pixilated swollen visions of the small intimate paper ones and further layers the relationship the viewer has to both."
To inquire which works are still available in this series, contact Klowden Mann
A book of Hubby's collages called UNIFORMS, from 2011-2013 was published in September, 2013 by THE ICEPLANT press, and distributed by ARTBOOK Click here for link to purchase
A description of the book:
Los Angeles artist Bettina Hubby takes a detour from her curatorial, community-based projects with Uniforms, an artist book of handmade paper collages as precise and elegant as they are chaotic and devious: clothed bodies collide, recombine and somersault across the page; machines mimic birds; jackets seem to genuflect in prayer... Constructed with the muted hues and contemplative negative space of a Noh play, Hubby's mashups remix the familiar photographic imagery of fashion, commerce and reportage into a open-ended riff on personal identity and the human organism. Complementing the work is an original fictional narrative by Dave Cull, delivered in brief installments throughout the book. Published in an edition of 750 copies on the occasion of Hubby's solo exhibition at Klowden Mann Gallery ("Pretty Limber," Los Angeles, Sept. 2013).
