Formal Wear by Diane Simpson

Walking into the winding maze created by Diane Simpson, viewers encounter a series of sculptures that blur the boundaries between the two-dimensional plane and three-dimensional space. Constructed from corrugated board, fiberboard, aluminum, brass, linoleum, and galvanized steel, these forms shift under changing viewpoints, generating a dynamic sense of disorientation. Each angle reveals a new composition — a geometry that feels at once architectural and domestic, familiar yet estranged. In this tension between deconstruction and material familiarity, Simpson evokes fragments of everyday life where the body invisibly dwells.

The exhibition continues on the lower level, where Simpson reveals her meticulous process. Sketches and photographs of historical women’s formal wear accompany axonometric drawings rendered on graph paper at a 45-degree angle. These preparatory works expose how each sculpture originates from garments — corsets, collars, pleats — translated into structured, abstracted volumes.

This sequence offers a subtle revelation: as viewers move from the gallery’s upper floor to the lower one, they trace the transformation of clothing into form, and function into abstraction. The realization of the body’s absence becomes central — its ghostly presence implied through the negative space between metal and board. Simpson presents an original and inspiring reimagining of how the overlooked structures of daily life and wears shape both form and identity.