MAL BURKINSHAW

A series of weightless jackets in front of a luminous screen look like x-rays of women where we don’t see lungs … but garments. This sublime, unsettling installation by artist Mal Burkinshaw was done in partnership with Sophie Hallette whose extremely fine, beautiful laces contribute to giving the show its magic.

Burkinshaw, a former student of Edinburgh College of Art and today director of its fashion program, first presented the work, baptized “Silhouettes”, at the Scottish National Portrait Gallery as part of a show on contemporary fashion and the Renaissance in 2014-2015. Today, and until February 26, 2017, it can be seen at the Cité de la Dentelle et de la Mode (City of Lace and Fashion) in Calais where it dialogues with the work of another artist who also blurs messages: Teresa Whitfield. Her hyperrealist lingerie makes us doubt if her creations really exist …