—–> Saturday, January 26th, 2013 @ 7pm
Lost and Collected
Opening for “The Table” curated by Ruby Hoette
Image: Lost and Collected 2012
Lost and Collected
Lost and Collected is part of a body of work that explores multiple histories of the origin, ownership and use of clothing. It is a reflection on the perceived ‘value’ of a garment and how this fluctuates over time and as a result of societal and cultural influences. Historically clothing and textiles have been considered highly valuable, even used as a form of currency. The current fashion system equates value with a brand or a designer and denotes other garments as ‘disposable’. Lost and Collected is an ongoing project that documents and maps lost and discarded clothing. Contrary to their devalued state, it presents these garments as unique artifacts and so proposes an alternate understanding of the value of a garment.
Ruby Hoette deals with fashion in an unconventional way, collecting garments and exploring their origins, patterns of use and layers of value and meaning. These collections take the form of photographic series, publications, clothing designs and interactive projects. They propose alternate modes of accessing and engaging with ‘fashion’. Her work is centered around the garment as a unique artifact, which carries a history; evidence of activities, interactions and transactions in our society. She proposes ways of interacting with clothing through redistribution and reinvention (appropriation) and redefines the accepted understandings of possession and authenticity within the fashion system. Ruby collaborates with Elisa van Joolen on dress-series; a platform for independent projects that celebrate the playfulness of fashion and imagine ways for it to be pushed beyond accepted forms of production and presentation. She graduated from the Gerrit Rietveld Academy, Amsterdam in 2006 and recently from the MFA Fashion Design and Society at Parsons, NYC.
Photos from event:
