Dutch artist Rosa Verloop works in a rather uncommon medium – nylon stockings and pantyhose – and creates some of the strangest, most disturbing life-sized human sculptures you've ever seen.
All Photos © Rosa Verloop
Preferring to work with nylons because the material is “soft, cuddly and fast” and “organic,” closely resembling the colors and textures of human flesh, Verloop says she lets the natural shapes of the material guide her hand as she tries to find the inner “story” behind each of her creations... which are often very disturbing when completed.
While the grossly distorted but still anatomically correct physical features (which often appear slightly melted) are creepy enough, it's the uncanny lifelike appearance of the nylon “skin” that makes the works so unforgettable.
“Some people will look on them with fear and horror, and others just get the urge to touch [them],” Verlopp says on her official site (translated here from Dutch). “This tells a lot about the person who looks at it.”
Personally I'm both spooked and fascinated by these grotesque but cuddly mutations; I'm not sure what that says about me, other than the fact that disturbing art always seems to intrigue me. That's normal, right?
If you want to see an artist who works with even more organic materials, check out this embroidery art that's stitched into the skin of the artist's own hand!