Objectification

MFA Student

Major: Textile & Fashion Design

Graduation Year: 2016

Artist Statement:

Facing the problem of ubiquitous cultural associations, Thressa Willett found liberation from the limiting aspects of the female body when she shifted her focus from fashion design to abstract object-sculpture. By removing the body from subject matter, it became easier to navigate intention. To avoid the pitfalls of female objectification, she found that she could critique the problem by subverting the problem— by objectifying objects.

With a passion for architecture, her schematic renderings come to life in a playful dance between systems and humanities. Inverting the associations of domesticity, the artist critiques the ideals of femininity by using the classically female-discipline of sewing construction. With a builder mentality, she designs schematics, drafts patterns, and approaches assembly with needle and thread. This systematic process yields an emotional plea for humanity. Each empathetic sculpture is a result of hard logic. Her hybridized discipline of textile construction and sculpture is both conceptual and self-reflexive; not only does it communicate a need for social change, but it subverts convention through its very existence.