February 11, 2005

Grandma does Spiderman

I saw Mark Newport's "New Works," an odd, if comfy-looking, exhibit of handmade superhero suits at Chicago's Cultural Center a few days ago.

Spiderman doesn't fly, but limply hangs, in one of several life-sized, hand-knitted recreations of superhero costumes (complete with booties) on display until February 20. Using elaborate embroidery and knitting, Arizona-based artist Mark Newport turns stereotypical gender roles on their heads with his comfy-looking versions of the Batman, Iron Man, and Aquaman suits. Newport's own superhero invention, the Patriot, is knit in a hideous red, white, and blue pattern that only a Supergrandma could love. There's more humor as well: the Fantastic Four's Reed Richard's costume is some 15-feet long as befits that superhero's superstretching ability, and the Rawhide Kid has his white gloves childishly hanging with a string through the sleeves, adding to the helpless feel of the empty suit. Embroidered cartoon covers, which Newport calls samplers, show delicate, convoluted stitching, which retraces the letters of the titles, or gracefully fills in the costumes of the superheroes portrayed; their preciousness belies the masculine scenes of fighting and rescuing. Of course, you might not notice any questions about gender, but instead wonder what it would be like to try on a suit and pretend to be Batman for a while.

Posted by oko at 02:35 PM | Comments (0)