Chado

The female body is absent in this cast glass sculpture by Karen LaMonte, a Czech Republic-based American artist. This work was created after the artist spent seven months studying the kimono in Japan on a Creative Artists Exchange Fellowship. Through her experience in 2006, the artist inaugurated a new series of works that emphasize the garment's texture and shape. Chado (named for the Japanese tea ceremony) hugs the invisible female form, falling over narrow feminine shoulders and cinched just beneath the breasts. LaMonte's is a work of both cultural and female identity that nonetheless removes the body in an act of de-objectification.