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The Leg Business

( Show Runs: June 2th - June 20th 2008 )
( Reception : Wednesday, June 4th from 7:00 - 9:00 PM )

The Leg Business The Last American Burlesque Queens By Taylor Robenalt Burlesque was an amazing cultural phenomenon. It was an industry that possessed seemingly balanced business traits for women during a period controlled by unbalanced attitudes towards equality. The manner of business during the late 1800¹ to mid 1900¹s was that commerce was a man’s world and the household was a women’s. The emergence of burlesque performers expressed a new burgeoning model of womanhood that encroached on the male domain of business and challenged the status quo of society.

Through a creative investigation, I intend to illustrate my admiration towards the courageous women whom opted to acquire a paid occupation and career rather than wifehood or motherhood as their life’s work. For the first time in American history the structure of the family and workforce were being challenged, due to the burlesque women obtaining and dominating this vocation. In my work, I want to concentrate on the high level of artistry and professionalism, which the burlesque queens achieved in the industry. Unlike contemporary striptease, burlesque was a larger theatrical act that involved live music, skits, humor and glamorous costumes. The costumes where tailored to fit the individual queen and had multiple garments (up to ten pieces) that assisted in the art of stripping which was more of a tease then a strip. Actually, the women never revealed all of their bodies. Part of the act was creating an illusion of being naked, while wearing nude colored pasties and g-strings. I want to explore this concept by trying to immolate the illusion of nudity through using mixed media on my surfaces. I intend to polish the surfaces of each sculpture in order to obtain a soft and sensual sense, similar to that of a woman’s skin.