Gloves

Womarts > visual arts > Gloves

BIO

Lea Culetto uses embroidery, assemblage and mixed media to create objects and installations that challenge notions of femininity and feminism through the prisms of fashion, the gaze and the body.

In 2019, she completed a postgraduate study of painting at the Academy of Fine Arts and Design of the University of Ljubljana (UL ALUO) with a master’s thesis “Too much, too little, never exactly right” and other tales about the female body.

She took part in numerous solo and group exhibitions in Slovenia and Europe.

She is currently a resident at the International Centre of Graphic Arts, Švicarija, Ljubljana, Slovenia.

AWARDS AND MENTIONS

2015 Recognition for special achievements awarded by the Academy of Fine Arts and Design in Ljubljana

2018 Award for special achievements awarded by the Academy of Fine Arts and Design in Ljubljana

GROUP

Independent artist

NETWORKS

Gloves

 

The Gloves project derives from the “fashion trademark” deflowered by Lea, which tackles current as well as concealed themes (in)directly connected to the female body. In the project, the artist uses a play of associations to intertwine three types of work: paid labour unpaid (house)work and beauty work. Through an artistic “appropriation” or “estrangement” of an everyday object, such as protective latex gloves, Lea Culetto transforms these shabby, industrially produced goods into a value-added product – a fashion accessory.

The defamiliarization of protective gloves, stereotypically associated with “women’s work”, the work of a “housewife” or a “cleaning lady”, triggers a reflection on the power relations inscribed into everyday objects, socially connotated in one way or another. The artist associates these themes with toxicity, and every pair of gloves playfully represents a certain context: toxicity in intimate relationships, at a workplace, in the repressiveness of the (neo)patriarchal social system, as well as literal toxicity of the toxic substances (once) present in cosmetics and cleaning products. – Katja Kobolt

The deflowered by Lea project was produced by Aksioma – Institute for Contemporary Art, Ljubljana.

Co-produced by the City of Women, Goethe-Institut Ljubljana.