E.V. Day: Divas Ascending

Jun 18, 2021 – Jun 25, 2023

Artist E.V. Day has repurposed costumes from the New York City Opera archives to make Divas Ascending, a series of sculptures that transform familiar icons of women’s empowerment and entrapment into new objects that confound conventional readings of these cliches.

Using tension to suspend, stretch, and shred garments and to create forms that the artist likens to futurist abstract paintings in three dimensions, Day has created work that transforms rigid symbols into a range of emotions: anxiety, ecstasy, liberation, and release.

This selection represents eight of the thirteen originally commissioned by New York City Opera.

EXHIBITION PREVIEW

SELECTED WORKS

Left: Manon-Ghost Angel (Manon, Massenet), c. 2009-2010, Retired wardrobe from New York City Opera, Stainless steel rings, monofilament and hardware, 120h x 72w x 72d in. Right: Mimi-Rigor Mortis (La boheme, Puccini), c. 2009-2010, Retired wardrobe from New York City Opera, Stainless steel rings, monofilament and hardware, 120h x 72w x 72d in.

Carmen (Carmen, Bizet), c. 2009-2010, Retired wardrobe from New York City Opera, Stainless steel rings, monofilament, artificial roses, prop knife and hardware, 120h x 72w x 72d in.

Cinderella (Peasant/Princess), c. 2009-2010, Retired wardrobe from New York City Opera, Stainless steel rings, monofilament and hardware, 120h x 72w x 72d in.