ROSE MALENFANT

Slideshow of Sky Dilated, and Elasticity series, Rose Malenfant, Nylon, Silicone, time, gravity.
Images Description: Hanging sculptures that have weights pulling down pantyhose that are in various states of having wires stretch them and being tied in different places. Metal and wire have parts of the pantyhose stretched over to form circles with beads and other materials evoking abstract representations of uterine, vaginal, and fallopian anatomy. The tension of the weight and airiness of the materials is evocative of many concepts relating to justice for AFAB/female/women/and people raised as female.

I’m fascinated with the juxtaposition of natural and synthetic that surrounds us. Through fleshy installations made of pantyhose, bioplastic, and silicone, I examine both matter changing overtime, and artificially preserved.

The body learns and heals through repetition. I've found, my practice is often centered in ritual, that either returns me to rhythms of my own body, or draws my attention to blocks.

Through my work I use materials to examine relationships between my internal and external environments. By physically transforming matter, I imagine reclaiming the body from the inside out. Creating sculptures of minute sensations allows me to counter conditioning that’s trained us to discard the wisdom of our bodies.

Through bodily activations, I often invite elements of gravity, presence, or absence to become collaborators in my process. It is through this exchange I can materially invite myself and others to peer into our bodies with a sense of curiosity and admiration.

From *Elasticity* series, Rose Malenfant, Nylon, Silicone, time, gravity.
Image Description: Hanging sculpture that has weight pulling down pantyhose that stretched into a circle with wire at the top, holds a ball of string reminiscen tof an umbilical cord, and tied knots at the bottom.

Are You Surprised by our Elasticity?

What do we choose to hold
and what weight do our bodies bare out of survival?

I too knot, twist.
Stretch, rip, hang, fold.
What’s this space in the middle?
I wanna learn.
But they made wombs illegal.
Still we’ll whisper,
write then burn
make sculptures in secret
They won’t know when they see it
But we’ll know and we’ll feel.
The women are real.

Rose Malenfant is a multidisciplinary artist from New York, based in Brooklyn. Her work is material and process oriented, centered in the cycles of the body and environment. Rose uses a variety of techniques and materials including nylon pantyhose, bioplastic, silicone, gravity and time.

Her work has been exhibited by galleries throughout Manhattan, Brooklyn, and Queens including El Barrio Art Space, Atlantic Gallery, and the Factory LIC. She has received awards from The Art Students League of New York and the International Society of Experimental Artists. Rose continues to invest in her practice with the Textile Study Group of New York and The Alternative Art School. Rose was a recipient of Beam Center’s Artist in Residency Program on Governors Island, New York where she focused on textile installation and sculpture.

Rose Malenfant, headshot by Leah Huang
Image Description: Rose Malenfant looking off to the low light coming from the left of the picture, wearing a white loose shirt, large white and gold sculpture earrings, a thin gold necklace, and brown hair partially pinned up. One of their sculptures hangs in the background, with some potted plants underneath.

Featured in the AoM: Responding to the Overturn of Roe v. Wade 2022 virtual exhibition:

*Are you surprised by our elasticity?*, Rose Malenfant. Mixed media- metal, wire, yarn, pantyhose, stone, pearl beads, quinoa, clay, balloon, bone, avocado pit, 42 x 40 in.
Image Description: Side view of hanging sculptures that have weights pulling down pantyhose that are in various states of having wires stretch them and being tied in different places. Metal and wire have parts of the pantyhose stretched over to form circles with beads and other materials evoking abstract representations of uterine, vaginal, and fallopian anatomy. The tension of the weight and airiness of the materials is evocative of many concepts relating to justice for AFAB/female/women/and people raised as female.

To be pro life one must be pro living.

If your idea of utopia is one where every woman who becomes pregnant gives birth,

Then every woman and child deserves a world that doesn’t cripple life.“

What does it feel like to know our bodies
How do we
stretch, rip, hang, fold-
Delight and challenge those who get close

What do we choose to hold
and what weight do our bodies bare out of survival

We are inseparable from our womb.

A home
A source
A matrix
No man’s trick
Can dictate

What we birth.
Or how we choose
To fertilize earth.

My work forms through curiosities explored-
It is a practice of listening through touch and responding.
I create conjunctions where fragments of different become one.
And through these surreal forms we somehow feel closer to understood.
Creating is a sacred dance where living meets matter.
We can call upon a thread through ritual- touching and tracing it from ourselves to the source. Realizing Umbilical cords never cut.
Attached we will find all our sisters and mothers and children. And they will be whole and intertwined yet unbound. If collective breath or menstrual blood could be woven.
One fabric.

@Rose.mal.enfant