Fox

Maya Nachum Levy

This project examines the aesthetic contract between humans and the conceptual living dead. It is a meditation on man's uncontrollable attraction to fur outside of natural contexts—in human habitats.
Throughout history, processed animal skins and fur products have always signified a high social status, as well as economic and political power. They are seen as rewards and markers of power.
When the skin of an animal is completely stripped off, we get a chance to take a long look at the death of the living, the freezing of decay, and the paradox that arises from the encounter between aesthetics and ethics, beauty and morality.
In fashion, cheap velvet—the basis for "Mammoth and Moonlight"—is considered a low-grade fabric. This work examines this material's ability to imitate the aesthetics of a desirable organism.
Thus, through a modern, vegan tanning process, the velvet sheds its low status and transforms from an ugly duckling into a swan.