NEWFANE — The Crowell Gallery at Moore Public Library, 23 West St., presents “The Pantyhose Installation” by West Brattleboro fiber artist Sharon Myers, part of her ongoing series exploring women's lives through underwear and clothing.
“Pantyhose are the daughters of nylon stockings and the granddaughters of silk stockings - gossamer, suggestive forms that women once draped over racks to dry,” Myers writes in her artist's statement about the exhibit.
“In work preceding this one, I draped pantyhose over picket fences, deer fencing, and tree branches to get that same effect. My love of dance inspired me to add motion and energy to those early forms.
“They needed to leap for joy, to run to parties and to be cheerleaders,” Myers continued. “They needed to tell more stories about women's lives and who we are. So I decided to stuff them and to make them move.
“I started collecting materials to reflect girls and women at different points in their lives (and legs). [...] The legs are emotional, historical, celebratory, sad. Overall, they're meant to be both serious and fun. In the end, there were 27 pieces.
“And someone asked me why there were not 28 to represent a woman's menstrual cycle. And so I made one more, and then more again.”