This week I went to see the works of India-based artist Vivan Sundaram at Fowler Museum located to the left of the Janss Steps. It was an amazing exhibition and a great visual enjoyment!
Video explaining the inspiration behind the two projects. Do check this out!
Making Strange: Gagawaka + Postmortem by Vivan Sundaram
The combination of Gagawaka and postmodern has delivered incredibly amazing art pieces. The exhibition brings together these two bodies of work by the artists. The first project, Gagawaka, includes 27 sculptural garments made from recycled materials and medical supplies. It represents Vivan's own fictional fashion brand and line of "strange" haute couture with very creative designs of clothes with foams, bras, surgical marks, x-ray-film, hospitals bandages and so on.
My favorite piece at Gagawaka!
Other pieces at Gagawaka
As I walked further into the room, I was shocked to see the other part of the exhibition- the second project Postmortem. It is a collection of scary sculptures of broken human parts, a shelf of anatomical models, tailor's dummies and dead bodies. It provokes my thinking of human body, illness and death.
Shelf of anatomical models
At first, I did not see much link between the two parts of exhibition. After watching the short video on Vivan's inspiration behind his art pieces, I was able to relate to the concepts better. It is certainly a very thought-provoking video, as the artist talks about how to bring meaning to his artwork, something that the mannequin would never perceive and have. The reality is that when you put the garments onto the mannequin, the clothes become a part of the mannequin and acquire a sense of beauty. The clothes transform the "neural" mannequin to be characters of distinct personalities.
When I think of garments, I never consider them as having another "souls" or "personalities". This exhibition really provokes me to think of this concept of attires bringing unique personalities to not just mannequin but also people wearing them. Maybe Vivan is right, clothes is not just fashion, but an vital piece of ourselves displayed to the world!
Sources:
Fowler Museum at UCLA. The Fowler Museum at UCLA, n.d. Web. 3 June 2015.
Butalia, Pankaj. "Making Strange: Gagawaka + Postmortem by Vivan Sundaram." YouTube. Fowler Museum at UCLA, 16 Mar. 2015. Web. 05 June 2015. <https://youtu.be/jt8_2hKhv68>.
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