An operatic installation of dissolving clothing
by Sasha de Koninck
There will be garments and textiles that dissolve completely, garments with embellishments that dissolve, as well as garments and objects that do not dissolve. The garments will be on display, perhaps hanging from the grid, alongside videos of them dissolving on screens throughout the space.
An excerpt from the artist's disertation:
“I begin to collect words that start with un.
Unlearning. Unmaking. Unforgetting. Unembraining. Unthreading. Unraveling.
Unspooling.
The collection grows.
Unwording. Ungrowing. Unfurling. Uncurling. Unopening. Unclosing.
Unclotting. Unhanding. Ungrabbing. Unstitching. Untaking. Undressing.
Undepressing. Unhealing. Unheating.
Unpicking.
I cover my body with the words. I bead them on my garments. I write them on
the walls. I need the act of ‘un-ningʼ. The ‘un-ningʼ will relieve the madness.The maddening and the un-ning interweave. Over-under-over-under. Under-
over-under-over. The ‘un-ningʼ was supposed to quiet the mind. But insteadthe mind races with the ‘un-ningʼ.
The words are falling apart like I am falling apart. My clothes are falling apart
like I am falling apart. Undoing as in coming apart. At the seams. Emotionally.
Dissolving.”
This work was made possible through the B2 Creative Residency Program. Learn more here.
Sasha de Koninck
Sasha de Koninck is a PhD candidate in the Intermedia, Art, Writing, and Performance program. Her work is a presentation of a multisensory experience, through the research and development of smart textile material for the body that is intimate, sensitive, and loud. Clothing reveals the details and subtleties of our personalities and life that can't always be explained in words. As material, the textile in a garment is something that is the closest thing to our skin, our shield, and security.