Two vintage white silk bridal gowns, two tiaras, two veils, two pairs of shoes, two pairs of gloves, hairpiece, garters, panties, faux-pearl necklace, monofilament, fishing tackle and turnbuckles.
Approx. 11 1/2 x 18 x 16 feet

Permanent Collection of The Lever House, NYC.

"Day’s sculpture recalls the dynamics of Italian Futurism, especially works such as Gino Severini’s “Dynamism of a Dancer” (1912), and Umberto Boccioni’s “Unique Forms of Continuity in Space” (1913); the Dada attitude expressed in Marcel Duchamp’s “Nude Descending a Staircase” (1912); the painterly suspension and gestural motion of Jackson Pollock’s 1950s drip paintings; and the cinematic computer animation displayed in “The Matrix” movies." - Richard Marshall

Bride Fight is a sculptural tableau that represents a manifestation of anxiety and humor, memorializing an active state of transformation of tradition.

This installation is of two bridal gowns suspended between floor and ceiling with heavy-duty fishing line and hardware. The gowns are classic and traditional, but these “brides” are posed in combat, shredding one another’s garments as each simultaneously explodes from within. Employing imagery from abstract expressionism, Italian futurism, figurative sculpture and cinematic computer animation, the tropes of the bridal ensemble are shattered. Within the tension of hundreds of monofilaments are tulle veils, long lace gloves, garters, shoes, hair pieces, pearls, beads, and silk, meticulously frozen in space. The loaded metaphor of battling brides in mid-explosion is an ecstatic expression of liberation and transformation, while vestiges of tradition remain recognizable and intact.

Bride Fight developed from a series of installations called Exploding Couture, begun in 1999, in which I suspend women’s dresses in space. Each dress portrays a view of a conventional feminine stereotype in a dramatic stop-action explosion. The “explosions” are constructed to feel as if the internal forces of the figure are so powerful that the garment literally blows off as if it is outgrowing its stereotype. Ecstasy, strength, humor, and release are emotions I associate with the expression of these sculptures.

Other works of mine, such as the G-Force series, in which feminine undergarments are transformed into jet-fighter planes that have flown en masse through such public spaces as the Rodin Sculpture Court of the Brooklyn Museum and the indoor park of Phillip-Morris’ New York headquarters. In another series of sculptures called Galaxy, I manipulate lingerie again, infusing the undergarments with resin to produce science-fiction-like creatures that allude to self-sufficient reproductive systems and self-propulsion.