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piano & string bass
play in minor tones
(Erica Spitzer Rasmussen)
A Coat for Two Occasions,
a garment that I made to wear
to my funeral and cremation.
I was in an Oriental grocery
once upon a time,
a closeout on joss paper.
It's decorative paper,
sometimes called spirit money,
at some Asian funerals.
And as the smoke rises
to the heavens,
your thoughts and your prayers
are carried to your loved ones.
And I thought that was
such a beautiful ritual,
that I wanted to be able
at my own demise.
piano plays softly
I like that tension
and the horrific,
and that which is beautiful
and is repulsive.
keep me interested
help engage the viewe
a maker of paper garments.
As a girl, my mother sewed
the majority of our garments,
brought up around fabric,
making puppets.
it was familiar territory.
electronic music plays
Corsets of Tallith,
from a larger series.
about ten of these corsets.
always been about the body.
I've been fascinated by the body
so many different ways
to look at it and talk about it.
frustrated as a graduate student
painting about the body.
And one day it was like
over my head.
working 3-dimensionally.
This one is made
with bottle caps.
In the summertime, when I go
I pick them up.
The second one here is
surfaced with dehydrated sole.
to skin itself.
with dehydrated cherry tomatoes
and then it's lined with these
tassels made of human hair.
Hair is a reoccurring theme
in my work.
It represents
so many different things.
When I was a girl, my father
told me that eating tomatoes
and strong and hairy-chested.
As a small child,
I recognized
was appropriate for a man,
but not, of course, for a woman.
And that's why
I stopped eating tomatoes
and I avoided it for 20 years.
I like to incorporate materials
that help me tell my stories.
should use those very materials,
that tormented me.
My brother went on
to eat tomatoes
how hairy he turned out!
This is a piece called Choker.
how my seasonal allergies
appear to be worsening as I age.
when Minnesota
is at its most beautiful,
I am feeling my worst,
and I seem to be taking
decongestants on a daily basis
as the elm seeds in this case
are falling from the sky.
cyclical process
and also the kind of choking
physical effects
during the summertime.
whirring
of my friend, Trin.
I started working
with handmade paper
most aligned or related to skin.
I can turn them into yardage
by adhering
of paper and creating yardage
or sometimes I cast the paper.
Then if I cover it with things
that help me tell the stories.
When I was in Austria,
I went to my family's
hometown of Spitz
and when I was there,
looking for evidence
of my family,
the apricots were in season,
and they were literally falling
from the trees.
until we could eat no more.
about preserving my work.
The body, of course,
will change and decay in time,
that my work should do the same.
piano plays softly
I love making the work.
I love the material experience
of handling the work,
creating patterns,
of stitching the garments up,
spending time with the work,
upon the experience.
I love telling the stories,
I love seeing people
nod their heads in agreement.
I can't imagine
doing anything else.