Ballerina Music Box
Nylon tulle, acrylic paint, thread, video projection
Dimensions variable
2022
Constructed from countless spools of synthetic nylon tulle, my installation is created through a process of layering, pleating, gathering, tasseling, and hand sewing fragments of material into a multilayered form. Details of the stitches, layers, and folds are revealed through the warm overhead lighting and cast shadows on the wall. Engulfed inside the fabric formed space is a video projection of a wind-up music box with a ballerina figurine spinning on an axis. She wears a tulle tutu with a trail that wraps around her body. She spins for the viewer to the repetitive melody of Tchaikovsky’s "Waltz of the Flowers" (1892) from The Nutcracker.
Dimensions variable
2022
Constructed from countless spools of synthetic nylon tulle, my installation is created through a process of layering, pleating, gathering, tasseling, and hand sewing fragments of material into a multilayered form. Details of the stitches, layers, and folds are revealed through the warm overhead lighting and cast shadows on the wall. Engulfed inside the fabric formed space is a video projection of a wind-up music box with a ballerina figurine spinning on an axis. She wears a tulle tutu with a trail that wraps around her body. She spins for the viewer to the repetitive melody of Tchaikovsky’s "Waltz of the Flowers" (1892) from The Nutcracker.
“I gave a pink tutu to my three-year-old godchild for her birthday. She seemed enchanted, but her mother privately expressed some fear that little Iris might be lured into the exploitative, rarefied world of too-thin ballerinas whose shoes deformed innocent feet and whose ultrafeminine profiles somehow erased all progressive gains for which feminists had fought so hard in the twentieth century. It was a lot to fear from a tutu, but I was not without an understanding of such concerns. For women committed to issues of agency, gender equality, and the interrogation of patriarchal hierarchies, ballet has often seemed a mixed blessing, with its strictly defined version of femininity, weight restrictions, impossible challenges, and relentless competition. Still, pink tulle did not scare me; I had experienced ballet as a positive force in my life, a tool that had facilitated my learning about personal agency, collaborative effort, and spiritual expansion”.
- Jennifer Fisher, Tulle as Tool: Embracing the Conflict of the Ballerina as Powerhouse
- Jennifer Fisher, Tulle as Tool: Embracing the Conflict of the Ballerina as Powerhouse