Tights in art: why nylons are fetish and fantasy gold

From Man Ray to Louise Bourgeois, an astonishing range of artists have used tights and stockings to turbocharge their work. We go behind the scenes at Gossamer, a celebration of hosiery

An art exhibition about tights? In Margate? It sounds very end-of-the-pier, all saucy postcards and mother-in-law jokes. There is something a bit icky about hosiery in the day-to-day. Tights are underwear, sure, but they’re more business end than babe-wear: functional, grubby, prone to tugs and bald patches. There are few words uglier in the English language than “gusset”.

“Tights sit in the innermost, intimate regions of the female form,” says Zoe Bedeaux, curator of Gossamer, at Margate’s Carl Freedman Gallery. “So when one thinks about their function and then imagines them in the context of art, I guess they can conjure an element of humour.”

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from Culture | The Guardian https://ift.tt/2n9VaWb