Artful mix matches emotions and fashion

Lisa Lynch, curator of the art exhibit ''Dress Redress'' at Brandeis University, with Leslie Wilcox's ''Sport Coat.'' (Suzanne Kreiter/ Globe Staff)

With our identities so wrapped up in clothing, wardrobe choices can be creative and exciting, but also daunting and nerve-racking.

Curator Lisa Lynch has always been fascinated by these conflicting views of fashion, a theme she's enjoyed exploring in her first show as director of the Kniznick Gallery in the Women's Studies Research Center at Brandeis University. Devoted exclusively to the display of art about women and gender, the space is the ideal setting for "Dress Redress," on view until Sept. 25.

Clothing is so undeniably central to our lives, Lynch explains, yet it opens a Pandora's box of emotional baggage. There's the fun fantasy of catwalk models and Halloween costumes, versus the fretful choices surrounding office dress codes and not-so-blind dates. How much truth lies in the phrase, "You are what you wear"?

Before landing the position of director of the arts and external relations at the WSRC, the 31-year-old Lynch asked herself that question as she considered what to wear for her job interview. "I was torn between the standard, conser vative look and showing my more creative side," she said. "I went back and forth and decided on a mix."

There were more mixed messages to come. When asked to take a walk around the building and comment on what she would change, Lynch marched out the door and took a walk around the building, much to the surprise of center founder Shulamit Reinharz.

"She meant inside. I thought outside," says Lynch. "I was literally thinking outside the box. We got a big laugh out of that."

But her suggestions for expanding the exhibition space to include outdoor installations, such as Leslie Wilcox's sculptural tree clothing, landed Lynch the job and the opening for "Dress Redress."

Before entering the gallery, visitors are challenged to think of clothes and identity by Wilcox's whimsical wire-mesh-clothed trees. One work on the curator's wish list was Wilcox's "Big Britches," an upside-down pair of sculptural pants designed to fit a split tree.

"You'll notice the work we have is called 'Big Britches 2,' " says Lynch. When Wilcox came to check out the site, she decided the lanky tree was female, not male, and created a new, more stylish trouser with lower waist, soft belt, and intricate seams. Talk about gender issues in art.

Lynch discovered Wilcox when she worked at the DeCordova Museum and Sculpture Park in Lincoln for six years, beginning in 1998. It was Lynch's first job following graduation from Stonehill College in Easton, where she majored in art history and English.

She went on to graduate school, earning a certificate in Museum Studies at Tufts University and a master's degree in Art History from the University of Massachusetts. She feels one of her roles at the WSRC is to give provocative work a public forum.

For example, she chose another Wilcox work for the inside gallery: a gigantic structured coat that visitors are invited to step inside. Whether you feel secure or claustrophobic may indicate a taste for fashions that cover up or expose the body, Lynch says.

Ever obsess about what to pack for an upcoming trip? Nothing could compare to the wardrobe dissection presented by another of the show's artists, Sandra Eula Lee. Bored while on vacation, Lee made tiny, meticulous paper cutouts of everything in her suitcase, then carefully pinned them to labeled boards like bug specimens to be examined and analyzed. She seemingly brought enough clothes for a month's holiday, yet spent her time off duplicating, rather than wearing, each outfit.

Artist Carol Hamoy has created a room full of ghostly, faded white dresses, each inscribed with the name of a female immigrant, the date she entered the United States, where she came from, and what she was forced to leave behind.

"Hamoy's message is that dress is often the first way that immigrants will try to fit into a new culture," Lynch said.

Clothing as a form of defense is a topic explored by Cambridge artist Aparna Agrawal's "body armor" pieces. Starting with an infant's onesie, Agrawal covers each "garment" with materials like beeswax, plaster, and seashells to reflect qualities of protection, from hardness to fragility.

At the opposite end of the spectrum are the satirical works by Candice Smith Corby, currently the director of the Cushing-Martin Gallery at Stonehill College, a position Lynch held prior to joining the WSRC. One piece is a vintage '50s housedress on which Corby has painted a self-portrait of her head topped with a soaring and unstable pile of domestic items.

"On the surface it's about women's impossible balancing act," says Lynch, but on closer examination, the placement of various household goods and the artist's face in sexually suggestive areas alludes to domesticity and gender roles.

But it's the eloquent works by local artist Esther Solondz that really capture Lynch's message of clothing's relationship with identity. Known for her evocative faces made from rust on paper, Solondz added shirt collars and trim to her male and female portraits for this exhibit. "They immediately became specific people rather than representing a generation," says Lynch.

As she walks through the show for the umpteenth time, Lynch adds, "I definitely like art that is thought-provoking and seems fresh and new, even as you keep going back to it." Sort of like fashion trends.