MONIKA VIKTORIA DIAK – EFFIGIES
Craft
Lisarow, NSW
I'm a painter and fibre artist creating a series of embroidered oyster sculptures called Effigies. Whether using watercolour or delicate silks and sequins, a common ghostly theme prevails in my subjects and palette. My pieces are pale and desaturated, exploring different aspects of identity and the nature of anomalous experiences.
Traditionally, an effigy is a life-sized sculptural representation of a specific individual, meant to act as a stand-in for the person in question. In Medieval Europe, funeral effigies depicting monarchs were dressed in royal regalia and were waited upon as if alive, while the actual remains of the departed were already sealed within their coffins.
Each Oyster Effigy is sewn with silk and lace, decorated with delicate seed beads and pearls. They lay nestled in their original shells, ghostlike and serene, a pale reminder of a creature raised as a refined delicacy, shucked, swallowed and usually quickly forgotten.
