We're not going far this week for our fashion festival fix - these three shows opening at Craft Victoria on Thursday night will provide enough to contemplate with a diverse range of garment related works made from books to body parts.
Kate James is worried: about animals, about people, about technique. In this exhibition she has created an exquisite range of horsehair Jewellery created using repetitive incredibly time-consuming and precise techniques that include horsehair hitching, tapestry, hand spinning, knitting, hairwork and rope-making.
The show is thematically centred around the concept of anxiety and these ancient craft techniques used to make works replicate a common feature of anxiety: whereby thoughts, images or actions are repeated over and over. While the use of hair in jewellery takes its cues from Victorian mourning jewellery, the art of Horsehair Hitching dates back to as early as 600-800 AD in Spain.
Interestingly it was a craft adopted by Midwest prisoners in the USA during the mid 19th century, as a measure to make constructive use of the prolonged time they had at their disposal while incarcerated. It takes about an hour to hitch 1 inch. And that doesn't take into account the time preparing and finishing the hairs for hitching. Very Definately Slow Craft.
Book sculptor, Dandy and mustachiod and man about town Nicholas Jones and up and coming fashion designer Warren Harrison of made by warren have worked on a collab of late to create works that explores the technique of binding as a cross-over point in their respective practices. We love a collab, and we love books and as for fashion... well we just wish we had figures and bank balances that could indulge our passion properly.
In Without Bias, Harrison has incorporated basic book-binding techniques to create garments with a distinctively bookish twist.While Jones has made a series of sculptures from books about textiles, garment construction and fashion design which take their inspiration from the tools of the fashion trade (scissors, needles, thread).
Adele’s practice uses the body both as location and material, fashioning ‘garments’ by manipulating the skin you’re in. Apart from her extensive background in fashion she has also worked as a special effects artist on a range of b-grade movies. And you know how much we love both b-grade cinema AND a makeover show. This could well be our perfect exhibition.
All in All well worth coming to the openings on Thursday night just to see what Nick will be wearing, and perhaps what Adele will not.
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