In Claudia Casarino’s El Otro Abrazo, a normal blouse is scaled up to monumental proportions, causing it to spill off the wall, onto the floor and into the viewer’s space. Casarino’s work engages with the paradoxes and complexities of the body—particularly the female body—and its representation. Her surrealistic distortion of scale raises questions of empowerment and presence: her work is oversized and attention-grabbing, yet ultimately empty and unwearable.

For Casarino, tulle becomes an important material for exploring social issues related to women’s experiences. Tulle is present in most rites of passage of women in western societies: first communion, quinceañeras, weddings and also mourning. The artist writes, “For me, its transparency is a metaphor of clothing itself. It covers the body but reveals other things. With tulle, the gaze transcends the garment.”

Techniques: Hand-cut and stitched
Culture: Paraguayan
Geographical Location: South America - Paraguay
Credit Line: Gift of the Artist