Corset 1880 - 1890

Editor: This is "Corset," a mixed-media piece made with textile and possibly ceramic elements sometime between 1880 and 1890. It's at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. I'm struck by how sculptural it feels, almost like a fragile architectural model. What’s your read on this, looking at it now? Curator: Well, isn’t it amazing how something so…intimate…can feel monumental from a distance? I see a vessel, an artifact imbued with so much of what it meant to be a woman then, or, really, a *vision* of woman then. The severe constraints, the fragile lace, that tension... It practically sings. I almost wonder if it represents a ghost more than a garment. How do you perceive its texture? Editor: That's an interesting read. I mostly focus on the visual aspect but am intrigued now by what you say. Its texture is hard to define from a picture but does the eye read more smooth than coarse? Curator: Precisely, that uncanny tension of appearance. Smooth, almost luminous from afar, yet screaming constraint. Consider this, my dear: it's more than just tight laces; it’s about defining a *silhouette,* a woman molded to expectation. This was art for life – brutal, beautiful, binding. Editor: Brutal, yes, definitely. But now I see beyond just the structure. The societal pressures…it’s all woven in, isn’t it? Thanks, it is almost disturbing to hear that what might seem ornamental, is so utterly, undeniably not! Curator: Ah, you feel it too! Never judge an old corset by its…buttons? No, wait, that’s not right. It speaks! It reminds us to look deeper. Isn’t it fabulous how one object can echo a whole world?