Originally organized by the Musée des Arts Décoratifs in Paris, Sculpting the Senses has travelled through Brisbane, Singapore and Rotterdam before reaching Brooklyn. The New York presentation expands its dialogue with art and science through objects from the Brooklyn Museum’s own collections.

Rather than following a conventional career chronology, the exhibition moves through interconnected environments inspired by water, anatomy, motion, sound, natural systems and the universe. Garments appear beside artworks and scientific specimens, allowing similarities in structure and movement to emerge across disciplines.

The result positions couture as a form of spatial investigation: clothing becomes an interface connecting the body with its environment rather than a decorative surface placed upon it.

About Iris van Herpen

Born in the Netherlands in 1984, Iris van Herpen grew up close to nature and trained in classical dance before establishing her Amsterdam fashion house in 2007. Both influences remain visible in garments conceived around bodily movement, balance and transformation.

In 2010, she became the first designer to present a 3D-printed dress on a runway. Yet her work is not reducible to new technology: its defining characteristic is the combination of digital processes with exceptionally demanding couture craftsmanship.

Her studio regularly collaborates with architects, choreographers, visual artists, musicians and scientists. These partnerships have produced a distinctive design language in which clothing may resemble a skeleton, wave, organism or atmospheric event—momentarily suspended around the human body.