Most Bizarre Art: The Original Meat Dress
If you thought Lady Gaga’s meat dress at the 2010 MTV video awards was innovative, you’ve probably never heard of Jana Sterbak. More than a decade before Gaga’s meaty ensemble, Sterbak, an artist based out of Canada, created clothing from meat in her 1987 exhibit “Vanitas: Flesh Dress for an Albino Anorectic”.
Born in 1955, Jana Sterbak is best known for her dark, ironic, feminist pieces. Her work has Dada and Surrealist inspirations, and much of the meaning in her art comes from the materials she uses to create it. Sterbak chose to describe her meat exhibit with the term “Vanitas,” which was once used to describe seventeenth century still-life compositions of skulls and rotting meat and game.
Check out this video excerpt that details the making of some of these dresses:
“Vanitas” emphasizes the meat’s natural aging process which symbolizes human aging and mortality. Critics have also noted that the work addresses issues concerning women, fashion and the body. Gaga offered a similar critique when she wore her meat dress, toying with culturally accepted notions of women being equated with meat. Sterbak also used meat to create other art, as seen in the meat chair called “Chair Appolinaire” made in 1996.
