Divas Ascending Exhibit Comes to Kentucky, Opens 4/14

The Kentucky Center will host artwithoutwalls' upcoming installation of artist E.V. Day's groundbreaking Divas Ascending. The installation will feature eight elegant opera costumes from past productions of the New York City Opera, suspended high in the Center's atrium above the main lobby. The artist breathes new life into the costumes by using miles of fishing line and monofilament to elevate and manipulate the fabric, creating an illusion of the dresses floating, even soaring, above the lobby. The exhibit will open on April 14 with a special reception and will remain open to the public, free of charge, at The Kentucky Center through October 15, 2011.

Louisville-based nonprofit, noncollecting art organization artwithoutwalls is presenting the installation in Louisville. The organization was launched in 2009 and joins with artists to present ambitious and unconventional projects in a wide range of media and locations.

Day, known for creating sculptures that transform familiar icons of women's empowerment and entrapment into new objects, has worked with clothing before. One of her most famous works was from her Exploding Couture series, which included the piece Bombshell, a blown-up version of Marilyn Monroe's famous white dress. Like Divas, her celebrated 2006 piece Bridefight is a spectacular high tension string-up: this one of two dueling bridal gowns.

With Divas Ascending, the artist aims to both reflect the specific roles played by the now retired costumes, and to suggest new interpretations of their characters and their stories. For example, her Carmen wields both her signature fan and a bloody knife, and Mimi-Rigor Mortis of Puccini's "La Bohème" lends a heroic elegance to her rigid, tragic state. Each piece is specially displayed to take full advantage of the dramatic size and expansiveness of theatrical costumes. With rigging, the pieces are as much as eight to ten feet tall, soaring throughout the Center's cavernous 80-foot high main vault.

"E.V. Day's alluring and arresting work is truly multi-disciplinary," says Alice Gray Stites, director of artwithoutwalls. "Divas Ascending combines sculpture, performance, and installation, and references art history, the theatre, and fashion all at once. artwithoutwalls is committed to working with other innovative institutions to bring new art to new audiences, and the Divas are the ideal collaboration with The Kentucky Center ."

"The Divas Ascending installation demonstrates both Louisville's ability to attract and feature inspiring and thought-provoking art, as well as The Kentucky Center's goal of seeking unique partnerships to provide a broad spectrum of art forms to the community," said Stephen Klein, President of The Kentucky Center. "We are truly honored to host this installation with artwithoutwalls. It will create an amazing, spectacular environment hovering above the Center's lobby."

Works included in the exhibition:

Violetta (Verdi, "La Traviata")
Mimi-Rigor Mortis (Puccini, "La Bohème") (See attached image)
Carmen (Bizet, "Carmen)
Merry Widow (Lehár, "The Merry Widow")
Skirt Chaser (Mozart, "Don Giovanni")
Cinderella: Distressed Peasant/Princess
The Clown (Leoncavallo, "Pagliacci")
Hats

The installation of the suspended sculptures was originally commissioned for Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts in 2009-2010. This exhibition represents a unique, first-time collaboration between artwithoutwalls and The Kentucky Center.