Identity is a vital theme connected with fashion. It’s indeed through our clothes and accessories that we shape our persona and communicate to other people the way we feel or the way we want to be perceived.
A recently opened exhibition at the Royal Academy of Arts entitled “Aware: Art Fashion Identity” (until 30th January 2011) tries to analyse how different artists and designers use their creations to communicate a specific message or to reveal our personality.
The event – including work by Marina Abramović, Andreas Gursky, Claudia Losi, Susie MacMurray, Maison Martin Margiela, Alexander McQueen, Yoko Ono, Grayson Perry, Dai Rees, Cindy Sherman, Helen Storey, Rosemarie Trockel, Sharif Waked, Gillian Wearing RA, Yohji Yamamoto and Andrea Zittel – is divided in four sections, Storytelling, Building, Belonging and Confronting and the Importance of Performance in the presentation of fashion and clothing.
While the first section explores the role of clothing in chronicling personal and cultural history – a good example is Grayson Perry’s “Artist’s Robe” (2004), a coat with appliquéd motifs used as commentary on the figure of the artist in today's society – the second section references the world of architecture, by looking at clothing and accessories such as wigs as a form of protection, as buildings that shelter the body.
Mella Jaarsma’s “Shelter Me 1” (2005) explores this theme in a minimalist way, looking at basic body constructions directly related to the proportions of the human body.
The third section allows to explore more vital social issues also linked with cultural and political themes.
This section also includes "Chic Point” (2003), an installation by Palestinian artist Sharif Waked that tries to juxtapose high fashion and semi-imprisonment.
The final section focuses instead on the roles that we play in our daily lives through fashion and clothes.
Among the works exhibited in this section there is also the video of Yoko Ono’s 1965 performance in which the artist invited the public to cut strips from her clothing.
Special relevance is given in the exhibition to new works by Yinka Shonibare and Hussein Chalayan: the former created a colourful wall mural using 18 designs based on 19th-century children’s dress made with bespoke tailor Chris Stevens.
Chalayan presents instead an installation that calls to mind one of the creations inspired by the Bunraku puppet theatre featured in the film that accompanied his Spring/Summer 2011 collection.
Andrea Zittel showcases in this event the hand-felted dresses from her "A-Z Fiber Form Uniforms" (2002-2006) project, consisting in a series of dresses to be worn for six months at a time.
I’m ending this post with an extract from an interview I did with the artist a while back in which she talks about her garments and the techniques she uses to make them.
Do you find it difficult moving between art and fashion or sparking up dialogues between these two worlds?
Andrea Zittel: Within my work there is a natural dovetailing of design and art. The issues I’m more interested in design deal with art while part of my fashion exploration started instead almost by accident. I think it’s natural to be drawn to clothing since it’s just the most basic kind of architecture for the body, it is the very first level you think about when you focus on what you’re going to use every day on a really personal level.
What kind of technique do you use to make your garments and will you continue the series in future?
Andrea Zittel: I’m really interested in figuring out new technologies that are at the same time very basic. A couple of years ago I started learning how to make felt, but, within that process, I discovered new ways to make hand-felted dresses made with fabric that is not cut or sewn. The challenge when I started making my dresses was figuring out a way to make a garment using the most fundamental material, that is raw and unspun wool. The fibre has been washed, but it hasn’t been processed through any other kind of technology. I just use my hands as a tool, so I employ the most basic ways of making something, but I make it in a quite sophisticated way. I’ve been making the garments since 1990 and I’ve been wearing and making my own clothes since then, so I’ll continue doing it, even though I’m not sure I will move onto a larger scale.
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