Rhonda

Lavonda

Yolanda

Chiffonda

1995

Organza and crushed velvet

32’ long

Beverly Semmes is a multidisciplinary artist based in New York. Her work

investigates the ways in which we interact with the female body, whilst

engaging with the historical traditions of women's work. Her fabric installa-

tions are fantastically larger than life and wonderfully feminine. Clothing

becomes a stand-in for the female form. The monumental scale of Semmes’

pieces dares a viewer to imagine the commanding wearers these garments

must belong to. The Progressive Art Collection contains Semmes's 1995

site-specific piece, Rhonda Lavonda Yolanda Chiffonda. Four exaggerated

dress forms descend from just below the ceiling, filling a majority of the

installation wall, crating for a viewer the ability to experience the piece from

multiple floors of the building. Though large in scale, the experience of the

work is never daunting, instead, the dresses impose themselves in the space

as lovingly powerful beings.

-Lucy Dietrich