Collage on tissue paper assembled in a wooden box

This work in progress focuses on representations of silk in Austrian museum collections, particularly at the Kunsthistorisches Museum. In these collections, silk appears in paintings as symbols of wealth and refinement: part of royal attire, interior ornamentation and religious iconography. The research then investigates how this representation conceals the realities of production and of the laboring bodies involved, both human and nonhuman. From this research, a series of collages was created using postcards from these museums. In the compositions, the silkworm is anthropocenized and transformed into silk itself, with bodies and wings formed from images of silk in art history.