SAND MAGAZINE | What is the current that presents a behaved waist, as told by Stephanie Jane Burt

“What is the current that makes machinery, that makes it crackle, what is the current that presents a long line and a necessary waist. What is this current.” 

– Gertrude Stein, Tender Buttons

What is the current that presents a behaved waist is the second solo exhibition of Singaporean artist Stephanie Jane Burt. Basing the narrative on Hitchcock’s film noir psychological thriller Vertigo, the exhibition continues her interest and engagement with film and fiction – considering the key but often eclipsed character of Judy who becomes a shadow to the fictitious ideal of Madeleine.

Using various materials such as metal, wire, bibbon and lace, Burt choreographs how the unyielding costume of Madeleine that Judy wears can be made vulnerable, yielding to other possibilities of becoming. The exhibition speaks of the challenges posed to feminine and female expressions, imagining an alternative mode of navigation for Judy.