Melissa Wang
The Light Blazing Inside You, Too from the 2020 Word for World is Forest Series
textile, fiber, acrylic, copper, fishing wire
35 x 52 x .5 in.
$3,600
Even before the pandemic, there were physical and cultural boundaries to social connection. The #MeToo hashtag generated an unprecedented breakthrough for global taboos; stories about gendered discrimination, harassment or violence circulated, “touched” people and transformed into something bigger: a movement.
My work, The Light Blazing Inside You, Too, deconstructs lingerie – garments representing feminine intimacy – and reassembles them to manifest this transformation. Inspired by Martin Luther King Jr’s saying “[that] the arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends towards justice,” this work meditates on the types of connection that can transcend current or conventional boundaries. What constitutes and creates intimacy or closeness? How do shared experiences affect, and even strengthen, our bonds to each other? How do they sustain or transform us in the face of crisis?
© Melissa Wang