The Eyeballs from Outerspace, Dallas Museum of Art
The Eyeballs From Outerspace, thread, 2011
A multitude of blue cloud-like, cat-like thready eyeballs gaze down from underneath the stairwell at passersby. The work addresses the human need to see and be seen that relates to the spectacle of fashion. The need to be seen is not only the need to be seen as object, but to be held in a loving gaze by another. The Eyeballs from Outer Space gaze continuously, neither blinking nor turning away. The arrangement of the Eyeballs in broken blue lines relates formally to the blue sailor stripes to which Gaultier returns over and over to re-invent: multiple horizons, sky-like and ocean-like.
The work is made out of thread through a process of machine stitching onto a dissolvable matrix. The dissolvable matrix holds the stitches in place until enough linking occurs for the drawing to cohere. The matrix dissolves in water leaving only a network of threads. In the fashion industry this process is called “free lace.”
The Eyeballs From Outerspace where originally conceived as a part of the installation, The Supposed Object.