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RISDM 2012-95-2.jpg
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Sruli Recht

An Emperor’s New Untangling, 2012

Description

Maker

  • Sruli Recht, Australian and Icelandicb. Israel

Title

An Emperor’s New Untangling

Year

2012

Medium

Machine-knit and hand-sewn Biosteel, with heat-fused seams

Dimensions

CB 76.2 cm (30 inches)

Signature / Inscription / Marks

Center-back neckline-interior: "Sruli Recht"

Type

  • Fashion,
  • Costume

Credit

Mary B. Jackson Fund

Object Number

2012.95.2

Exhibition History

Exhibition History

The Art and Design of Spider Silk

September 27, 2019 - April 19, 2020

Artist Sruli Recht’s design journey often begins with a fascination with materials, as was the case with this shirt. The disturbing yet compelling story of the material, Biosteel, is in keeping with many of Recht’s other projects, which employ everything from his own flesh to stillborn lamb pelts to whale foreskin. Here goats farmed in a biofactory were genetically modified to produce the protein of the golden orb spider (Nephila clavipes) in their milk, which was then used to produce the extruded synthetic fiber marketed as Biosteel.

Nearly invisible, this shirt plays on Hans Christian Andersen’s “The Emperor’s New Clothes” by evoking the vanity of the king in that tale and commenting on the unfathomable costs of creating “transgenic” organisms.

Artist, Rebel, Dandy

April 26 - August 18, 2013

Writing of the custom-made "An Emperor's New Untangling" shirt, made of genetically modified spider silk, Reykjavik-based designer Sruli Recht poetically describes the process of knitting the suprisingly strong fibers into "the emperor's new clothing, an undergarment to protect the hearts of an empire." The "Horset," the man's corset-like garment made of horsehair, is made by "Asthildur Magnusdottir, a woman of iron will and a brain in each finger, [who] wove 3cm a day in the dead darkness of an epic Icelandic winter...from the waste products of the horse farms and slaughterhouses." These pieces show that the combination of soft, gossamer lightness and hard structure can coexist in the contemporary man's wardrobe. In Recht's words, "It's about making things that people didn't know they needed, but now can't live without-perhaps because they are functional, perhaps because they look nice, but mostly because they provide them with a new way of experiencing things in life."

Use

The images on this website can enable discovery and collaboration and support new scholarship, and we encourage their use. This object is in the public domain (CC0 1.0). This object is An Emperor’s New Untangling with the accession number of 2012.95.2. To request high-resolution files or new photography, please send an email to imagerequest@risd.edu and include your name and the object's accession number.

Feedback

We view our online collection as a living documents, and our records are frequently revised and enhanced. If you have additional information or have spotted an error, please send feedback to curatorial@risd.edu.

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