Fashion and art, what about wearable art?
Recently I posted a video from the Queensland Art Gallery/Gallery of Modern Art which discussed the differences and similarities between art and fashion, as well as the place of both in our daily lives. It was an interesting and lively debate, but I felt one obvious area was overlooked and that is the area of wearable art.
Wearable art uses the body as a canvas and transforms something functional, like an item of clothing, into a piece of art that is worn. Conceptually this can take many forms. Haute couture, for example, can be regarded as art that is worn, due to the extensive skill and many hours of work that goes into each gown. It has elements of the realisation of an idea, that of the designer, as well as the collaboration of the artist/designer’s team, as in a traditional or contemporary workshop where ideas are carried out by crafts people.
The garments created for performances such as Cirque du Soleil might be regarded as wearable art. The body paintings by Joanne Gair too contain skill, illusion as well as a focus specifically on painting.
The QAG/GoMA discussion centred on fashion, so there is acknowledgement that fashion can be art some of the time, and vice versa too. What was missing was the necessary suggestion that when art and fashion meet they can form wearable art, which can serve to blur the aesthetic intentions of both fashion and art.
Costumes which are created by a range of practitioners for the New Zealand World of Wearable Art Awards can certainly be seen as the pinnacle of this idea. Taking the concept literally and to its end points the creators of WOW aim to take art off the wall and place it on the body, combining elements of theatre, dance and fashion parade to present a brilliant show every year.
The images above are a collection I’ve put together of my favourites from among the winners, (obviously there wasn’t room to include them all.) See the World of Wearable Art website for more pictures.
