Chado, Karen LaMonte (born 1967)

Karen LaMonte uses a range of materials to explore themes of beauty, gender, identity, and the natural world. Through this life-size kiln-cast glass piece, LaMonte re-envisions the tradition of nude sculpture. She presents a shell of clothing in the shape of a female figure with voids at the neckline and sleeves. The title “Chado” refers to the traditional Japanese tea ceremony, emphasized further with the kimono in a kneeling stance related to this ritual. This glass sculpture required two casts: one mold of a body made from a woman model, and another mold of a kimono that enclosed the cast body form. LaMonte studied how to make a kimono while living in Japan for seven months.