Body as
Agent: Changing Fashion Art... opening at the
Richmond Art Center...Saturday
September 12 from 5-7 PM
"Body as Agent: Changing
Fashion Art is an exhibition honoring and responding to Poetry for the
Body: Clothing for the Spirit, which was held at the Richmond Art Center,
March-April 1983. Presented throughout the four galleries, the 2015
exhibition demonstrates how wearable art has changed. Sometimes wearable
art is referred to as non-fashion, and although it may be considered to be on a
parallel journey with fashion, it is not part of the commercial, seasonal
aspects of the industry. Now, through artists, clothing forms are used to
convey a variety of important social/cultural issues. Clothing, in
portrait from, is exhibited in sculpture, paintings and prints.
Up-cycling is made beautiful and witty by using the forms of apparel with
which we are so familiar. However, through all of these added modes of
expression in garment forms, there are artists who still give us pleasure by
creating things we can actually put on our bodies and wear. In documenting
our contemporary society we become aware of the infinite ways we each express
ourselves through our daily presentation to the streets."*
Image: Pieced Remains Nomad Coat, detail by Carol Lee Shanks
Photography: Elizabeth Opalenik
