Did you know Leonardo Da Vinci invented the Bedazzler? It’s true.
Sometime around the later half of the 15th Century, Da Vinci drafted a machine that punched out small discs of metal with holes in the middle, aka sequins, to be adorned to clothing. While the machine only existed as a sketch (and technically not really a bedazzler either), carved sequins made from gold and semi-precious metals were at the time being delicately cut and sewn by hand into monarchs’ wardrobes as a way to reflect their class (and the light). When a mechanical invention was finally made to mass produce sequins and gold was later opted out for cheaper alternatives, anyone could be a queen or at least feel like one.
Today, plastic sequins hang from hand dyed fabrics draped over floor lamps, wall mounted night lights and even a thrifted lava lamp in Eric Anthony Berdis’s Garfield studio at Bunker Projects. Eric has been an artist-in-residence here for the past three months and his show, The ghost of you is what haunts me, opened last Friday.
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