...Many artists, intrigued by gloves’ multiple meanings and messages, turn them into works of art. American artist Laura Splan has created a ghostly pair of gloves from cosmetic facial peel, cast from her own hands. All the pores and follicles and creases of the absent hands are faithfully reproduced in the delicate, translucent sculptures; for Splan, ‘the vivid detail of the hand and the implied function of the glove evoke the metaphor of “slipping into the skin of another”'...
Anne Green
“Gloves” Facial Peel Sculptures Featured in Book on the History of Gloves
Gloves: An Intimate History
by Anne Green
2021
Published by Reaktion Books
Distributed by the Univ. of Chicago Press
A captivating history of gloves both real and mythical, practical and high fashion. This beautifully illustrated history of gloves draws on examples from across the world to explore their cultural significance. From hand-knitted mittens to exquisitely embroidered confections, and from the three-fingered gloves of medieval shepherds to Bluetooth-enabled examples that function like a mobile phone, gloves is an extraordinary variety is a tribute to human ingenuity. So, too, is the remarkable diversity of their often contradictory cultural associations. They have been linked to honor, identity, and status, but also to decadence and deceit. In this book, Anne Green discusses gloves both as material objects with their own fascinating history and as fictional creations in folktales, literature, films, etiquette manuals, paintings, and advertisements.
Anne Green is Emeritus Professor of French at King’s College London. Her most recent book is Gustave Flaubert (Reaktion, 2017).
