embodiment : wetsuit 007

Photos: CR&SH and Regina Maria Möller

ABOUT

embodiment – wetsuit 007 was specially created for the exhibition "Social Systems" at Tate St Ives, 2007 and in the context of regina in Cornwall magazine (issue no 8) by invitation from "ProjectBase" (Director: Sara Black), a not-for-profit art organisation based in Redruth, Cornwall. "During visits to Cornwall, Möller became fascinated by surf culture ans was struck by the contradictions faced by women engaged in what remains a male-dominated scene. For example, she observed that while there are competent women surfers, the majority tend to be relegated to the shoreline: claims to the best waves are seen as the right to the most skilled and daring men. For the artist, such hierarchies are reflected in wetsuit design. To function effectively a wetsuit needs to fit like a second skin, but until recently women have worn uncomfortable, ill-fitting suits, their bodies flattened out by suits created for the male physique. With embodiment – wetsuit 007 Möller produced a design in sync with muscles. The printed pattern on the nude-coloured wetsuit depicts muscles mutating into curling waves. “Muscular and powerful, the form curls up the thigh to hug the buttock, referring to the fetishistic, sexual connotations of the wetsuit. The suit also pays homage to surrealist artist Meret Oppenheim, who poetically combined form and function to create work that defied previous categorisation.”

Reference: Ginny Button: “Regina Maria Möller”, in: Social Systems, exhibition catalogue, published by ProjectBase, Cornwall 2007

WORKS

embodiment : wetsuit 007 – customized surfer wetsuit, nude-coloured neopren with print of embodiment logo mutating into a wave
embodiment : wetsuit 007 portrait – patterns of the customized wetsuit needle pinned on red wood, framed behind glas
embodiment : wetsuit 007 logo - silkscreen on paper

CREDITS

embodiment – wetsuit 007

Concept: Regina Maria Möller

Wetsuit Design: Donna Marie Longman

Illustration: A-Side Studio / www.a-sidestudio.co.uk

Silkscreen on nude neopren: JMS Design & Print, www.jmsdp.co.uk

Production: Techneopro / www.techneopro.co.uk

Commissioned by ProjectBase (Director: Sara Black)

Supported by: Tate St Ives Members, Henry Moore Foundation, Arts Council England South West

Logo embodiment

Logo Design: Regina Maria Möller & Michael Taylor, Manchester

Photos of embodiment – wetsuit 007

CR&SH, www.cr8sh.de

PUBLICATIONS

Sara Black (ed), Social Systems, exhibition catalogue, Cornwall: ProjectBase, 2007

Regina Maria Möller, regina – in Cornwall, regina magazine no.8, published with ProjectBase (Director: Sara Black), Cornwall 2007

Regina Maria Möller, embodiment – wetsuit 007, flyer

Susanne Neuburger (ed), The Enforced Dress, exhibition catalogue, Vienna: Kunstraum NOE, 2007

EXHIBITION VENUES

Social Systems, Tate St. Ives, Cornwall. 7 July - 2 Sep 2007 (Curator: Sara Black)

The Enforced Dress, Kunstraum NOE, Vienna, 5 Oct - 17 Nov 2007 (Curator: Susanne Neuburger)

DRESSing the MESSAGE, Sprengel Museum Hannover, Germany, 31 Aug - 23 Nov 2008 (Curator: Gabriele Sand)

Die Motte, Galerie Michael Janssen, Berlin 2018