Jabbed upright in the ground, this bold black and red work establishes itself confidently in the space. Chime uses stuffed forms paralleling body parts, that are bound with rope on top of an etched dark looming comb, where the warped shapes mirror the constant seeking to control the natural form and rhythms of the human vessel. Messages inscribed on the hard and smooth surfaces hide stories of the tussle between longing for acceptance and shunning the perfection's status quo. The hair comb embodies myths and rituals of how people mould and seek to tame what grows from the skin in order to reflect a dominant notion of acceptable beauty.
Chime is a multi-disciplinary artist who uses a wide range of materials to transgress ideas of female beauty standards. Their art challenges and subverts the constructs that modern society imposes, by aiming to offer new and transparent ways for the viewer to acknowledge their insidious manipulation.
The over-scaled wooden comb is painted black and carved with markings in a symmetrical pattern on both sides. Similar graphic markings are reproduced on the anthropomorphic printed mounds of red nylon that lie atop, held by striped red and black rope, and black wire ties.
Josephine Chime has said of this new work: "Stuffed forms paralleling body parts are bound with rope on top of an etched dark looming comb, the warped shapes mirror the constant seeking to control the natural form and rhythms of the human vessel. Messages inscribed on the hard and smooth surfaces hide stories of the tussle between longing for acceptance and shunning the perfection's status quo. The hair comb embodies myths and rituals of how people mould and seek to tame what grows from the skin in order to reflect a dominant notion of acceptable beauty."