Artist Bio
Patrice Yourdon is a sculptor living and working in New York. Her sculpture combines the use of sewn fabric and metal hardware: thousands of screws put into a mesh support describe objects that are normally soft in appearance: girl’s dresses, baby clothes, pillows and women’s fashion. Each piece challenges the viewer’s ability to trust what they see and know about the familiar objects. This work also examines the relationship of delicacy to strength as well as invoking aspects of armor, the invincibility of metal, the spiritual strength of ancient armor.
Patrice is currently at work on a series of Pinafore Warrior Dresses in part inspired by the clay statues found buried with the First August Emperor of Qin. Intended to be a protective army, these statues were made by assembling a variety of components including several styles of torso, hands, and forearms. In her dress series Patrice plans to make a group of dresses designed in a similar modular manner so that each dress is unique while still being of the group.
