Wrapped

About

Wrapping conceals detail while revealing overall form, and it has deep roots outside art. Ancient Egyptians wrapped mummified bodies in carefully layered linen, and many cultures bundle sacred objects and gifts in cloth; in Japan, furoshiki and other wrapping traditions treat the act of covering as a form of care and presentation.

Modern artists turned the gesture into sculpture. Man Ray's The Enigma of Isidore Ducasse (1920) hid a sewing machine under a blanket tied with string. Christo began wrapping bottles, cans and furniture in the late 1950s, and with Jeanne-Claude went on to wrap the Pont Neuf in Paris (1985) and the Reichstag in Berlin (1995). Judith Scott, from the late 1980s, bound found objects in dense layers of yarn and fibre, and Sheila Hicks wraps thread around bundles to make sculptural textiles. Look for tension in the binding and for what the silhouette still reveals.