The tie functions as an accessory to the suit as a color, pattern, and style accent.  Regardless of their variety, each still maintains a level of power.  By taking them out of context of the neck and placing them on the floor, I removed some of the power they poses. In addition, I wanted to transform their inherent stiff nature.  By sewing the ties together and stuffing them with a dense fabric, I could make them into soft objects that oppose the hard tie as we generally see it attached to a man’s neck.

 

All abstract shapes were the result of how the preexisting ties could fit together and be filled or stuffed.  They became phallus in shape as well as vaginal in the ways the ends tucked into themselves to create an opening.  I wanted these endogenous shapes to interact and be animated.  Some reference animal shapes while others seem to replica aspects of the human body, such as a waistline, or limbs.  By combining references we recognize, like the tie, with elements we don’t, like the placement, treatment, and relationship between them, I found an opportunity to evoke emotions in the viewer with out spelling out what I wanted them to think.  They could form their own relationships.