Katie Truk started experimenting with pantyhose as a medium in 1995. While an undergrad at Alfred University she began combining the translucent nature of pantyhose with the strong luminescence of neon. After graduation neon manipulation was out of the question due to the lack of studio space for its complex and demanding needs. Yet pantyhose still captured and held her imagination.
In 1998 after futzing around in the New York City Radio world Katie returned to her art and to the equation of pantyhose’s limitations as a medium. It was then that her mother’s neighbor was diagnosed with testicular cancer. This reminder of fertility and disease brought a wave of egg, chicken wire and pantyhose combinations that spoke of the contamination, possibility and hope. The fragility of the blown out eggs were not received well, and Katie found that the part of the pantyhose was underdeveloped.
1999, with the gift of some old beach fencing, brought about the first pantyhose and wire creations. Although she dabbled with the addition of material for a small time and wire gauges, it was the intercommunication of the pantyhose and reinforcing concrete floor wire that held the right combinations. Though size, colors and textures change in each of the microcosm, they maintain to be a storybook of traits and personalities that can never be examined to tedium.
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