I came across the sculptures by Karine Jollet recently and just had to share them with you! She uses vintage fabric, embroidery, and textiles to interpret portions of the human body in elaborate detail, exploring the idea of fabric as skin. The results are incredible pieces which remind me of antique anatomy textbooks.

Each piece is meticulously detailed and rendered in soft whites. From her site:

“The body as an enigma, I explore it, step by step, like a space that I need to reconstruct, to unify. Fabrics are materials that came naturally to me as an analogy to our own biological tissues: bones, fibers, crystals… I start with old bed sheets and shirts, embroided handkerchieves and second-hand fabrics that I cut up, put the fragments together, pad them and then sew them by hand. In this way I reconstruct different body parts (arms, legs, heads) and several organs and bone structures.

Observing anatomy fills me with wonder and respect. In my eyes, there is nothing morbid in anatomy; I can only see beauty and the wonderful complexity of forms and of vital functions. I cannot stop wondering, I ask myself, time after time, « why this hand, this foot, this heart …? ». Of what the body itself is a reflection? Following this line of thought I find that anatomy possesses also a hidden dimension that connects us to an invisible, ideal order of things and also to a secret, dreamlike reality. To represent both, I use the preciosity of pearls and crystals, of lace and flowers, of animals and chimeras etc…”

Here is a video of her in her studio working on a piece (in French):

More of her work can be seen at the links below:

http://www.medinart.eu/works/karine-jollet/

http://www.karinejollet.com/

-Taeden