Dear Shaded Viewers,
Perhaps it was the fact that Michaela Stark grew up in Australia where the population spent the majority of their time on the beach looking very fit, that she developed a certain insecurity about her body which she thought was ‘plus size’. She creates bespoke lingerie for all body shapes and what she likes to do is exaggerate what might be considered undesirable and instead of hiding what some might consider their not so beautiful parts, she decides to exaggerate the bulges to even make the bulges appear from bodies that you would not necessarily think of as fat. If you look at the photos by the Norwegian born photographer, Sølve Sundsbø you would not instantly recognise the body in the photos as that belonging to Michaela Stark. At least I didn’t. Of course it is the wide angle lens and the position of the camera that exaggerated the size of her body parts. Michaela likes to tie herself up in her corsets and create her own art works using the human form as her material. She ‘squishes’ her body into her artisanal corsets and she offers them more as a performance than everyday streetwear. Her way of dealing with what were once her insecurities about her body and her body hair have driven her into creating body sculptures and celebrating her bulges.
An exhibition, Stark Naked, is currently at the new cultural space 35/37 https://3537.org/35-37-rue-des-Francs-Bourgeois.
There will be a live performance with Michaela Stark strapping herself into her varied corsets Tuesday night at 20h at 35/37 rue des Francs-Bourgeois, Paris.
Later,
Diane
