chiffe

chiffe. 2011. Hammered chiffon and electrical components controlled by Arduino microcontroller. Suspended fabric is slowly torn, pulled and manipulated by mechanical components.



Originating in the 18th Century, the term ‘chiffon’ denotes trimmings or ornaments on a woman’s dress, however, its French origin, ‘chiffe’, translates to ‘rag’. These definitions are useful in terms of conceptualizing the complexities of manipulation and abuse as both individual and national crises. As distinct components, the warp and the weave of woven fabrics signify various constructed dualities; the passive and the active, the feminine and the masculine and the mortal and the immortal. As a whole, they denote the veiling of the true and profound from sight. Drawing on these notions, chiffe constitutes a physical manifestation of states of physical and emotional turmoil that remain shrouded in each individual. The specific selection of hammered chiffon and mechanical components generates not only a physical tension in the tearing and manipulation of the fragile material, but an ideological tension between the mechanical and the organic; cold cyclical destruction and visceral vulnerability. On a macro level, chiffe points to the crisis of sexual and physical abuse in South Africa; while on a micro level the exhibition serves to embody the feelings of melancholia, anxiety and desperation that hang in the air as invisible byproducts of unremitting cycles of maltreatment between individuals. chiffe is an argument, a realiity, a cruelty, a campaign, a monument, a memory.