October 30 - December 4, 2015

E.V. Day
Divas Ascending

E.V. Day’s presentation for Roanoke is an exhibition featuring four suspended sculptures from her Divas Ascending series made from the costumes of renowned female opera characters; Butterfly from Madama Butterfly, Mimi from La Boheme, Carmen and Cinderella. Each sculpture reflects the particular role each costume has played. The interplay between the story of the opera from which each costume came, the moment created by the sculpture, and the physicality of the transformed garment—its materials, its shapes, its colors, floating in this celestial space—is what Day hopes viewers of her installation will appreciate. As in much of her work, Day uses tension to suspend, stretch, and shred garments, creating forms that she likens to futurist abstract paintings in three-dimensions. This selection for Roanoke represents four of the thirteen originally commissioned by New York City Opera.

Day received her MFA in Sculpture from Yale University School of Art. The first work in her Exploding Couture series, Bombshell, was included in the 2000 Biennial of the Whitney Museum of American Art and is now in the museum's permanent collection. She has exhibited work nationally and internationally at such venues including The Whitney Museum at Altria, The Museum of Modern Art, Houston Grand Opera, and Cornell University.