The Brooklyn-based, interdisciplinary artist Elizaveta Meksin, who utilizes paintings, installations, sculpture, printmaking and copious amounts of spandex in her work, came to Brandeis on Wednesday to speak about her art in Goldman-Shwartz Fine Arts Studios. Although she works in more than one medium, she believes that the different mediums all act as vehicles for content, a theme coherent throughout her oeuvre.

Meksin's thesis project, "FUPA, "explored linguistics by taking a word with primarily negative conations, "FUPA," and encouraging individuals to repurpose the meaning of the term. FUPA, which stands for "fat upper pubic area," was a term Meksin found on the Internet that was used in primarily pejorative contexts. In response to the pejorative meaning of the word, Meksin created the same, circular, yonic-esque shape in different sizes and with different patterns, but always referred to it as a FUPA.

In fact, she added a communal aspect to the project by hosting "FUPA parties" where she would encourage attendees to create their own FUPA that they could "then enjoy, use and love," as Meksin said. Her project brought this word to the attention of her local community and, by doing so, the meaning of the word was subtly altered as people began to adopt it into their daily vernacular.

Meanwhile, 100 Spandex Leggings, which was created a few years after FUPA, was a project that operated similarly to FUPA although Meksin changed the respective pattern and word for each pair of leggings.

Meksin asked 100 people to think of a word and in response to that word would select a pattern that she felt fit the word so she could then make a pair of leggings. Once the leggings were complete, she would ask the individual who selected the word to wear the leggings and take a picture of themselves. Her spandex project was the inverse of FUPA.

In FUPA the same word was used to refer to the same object, but in 100 Spandex Leggings, the same shape is referenced by words ranging from knotty, magic, maid, honest, surf and pig, to name a few. The exhibited work, an installation of FUPAs which were tacked into the wall, enabled Meksin to engage with the coded meaning of not just words but also patterns that she associated with the words.

Meksin's work with spandex appears peculiar and kitsch until one recognizes the number and degree of spandex patterns that are created. The possibilities are endless and as Meksin describes, "there is a life span to these fabrics." As a result, Meksin said she felt the need to create her own spandex library to catalogue all the different patterns that enter into her studio. The patterns ranged from the gaudiest, including explosions of yellow fireworks and stars, to the basic stripes and anchors. In fact, Meksin was incredibly curious to figure out who was creating these fabrics and she said, "the more I dug for who was doing these patterns I realized spandex was a raw material."

Spandex also plays a central role in her 2011 piece, "House Coat." In the on-site installation, Meksin creates an outfit for a building out of spandex as she was struck by the similarities between buildings and houses, as both are what she termed, "vessels." To elaborate on her idea, she wrapped a house in St. Louis in white spandex that was covered in a gold chain motif.
She hoped that, "by making an outfit for the building maybe it would draw out some of these similarities and show how the other buildings were naked."

Meksin covered the house in spandex without creating fissures and holes in the building. Meksin felt adamant that the fabric should be fastened without nails and said that after all, "we don't bind our fabrics to our body, we don't make holes on the bodies." Instead, Meksin used a lot of corseting, ropes and sand bags to attach the spandex.

As time progressed and as a result of the nature of the fabric, Meskin said, "The spandex would billow" and gave the house an airy affect. It appeared as if the house was "breathing," just like humans, thereby furthering the association of houses to bodies.

By calling the project "House Coat", Meksin referred to the article of clothing formerly fashionable for women in the domestic sphere.

This reference was reminiscent of the separate spheres of society and the distinction of the public and private, inside and outside, male and female and hard and soft.

Meksin's work, created through the amalgamation of different mediums, explores recycling, meaning, linguistics and form.