Through exhibitions and performances such as ‘An Historical Anecdote About Fashion’ (1999) and ‘The Metal Party’ (2001), McElheny has explored how the constantly shifting forms of fashion can often reveal the core beliefs and assumptions of any given era. With ‘Interactions of the Abstract Body’ McElheny pushed these ideas further, creating a large and varied body of work that looks at how fashion and modernism have intersected and influenced each other, especially through the common language of the body. 

Part of the exhibition Space Shifter, Hayward Gallery, London sep-Jan 2019