EVENT: Making Strange

Today, I visited the exhibit in the Fowler Museum called "Making Strange: Gagawaka + Postmortem" by Vivan Sudaram. The artist presented this jointed idea of intertwining the human body and fashion by displaying sculptural garments made out of medical supplies and recycled materials (tubes, rubber, plastic). Sudaram truly captured the combination of "beauty and illness, pleasure and pain, life and death." The mannequin with barbed wire (picture below) inside its body and throughout its brain not only displayed pain, but the complexity of the human body and the mind. I was amazed at the variety of ways Sudaram pieced together materials to make garments and how he mixed and matched anatomical structures to create abstract figurines. 

 

 

(photo credit: me)

The use of recycled materials and medical supplies to make garments reminded me of the DIY trend of creating costumes out of certain types of everyday materials. An example is the infamous meat dress worn by Lady Gaga (picture below). I did some research on types of other materials used to make garments and I found an article on Ted Sabarese, an English photographer, who created a portfolio of models wearing many different kinds of foods! My favorites were the Breakfast Guy and the Bread Girl (pictures below). Another artist, Takaya of Japan, created edible couture out of fresh vegetables and fruits in order to raise awareness of eating healthy whole foods. She created dresses, headpieces, handbags, and many more!

 

(photo credit: http://www.youne.com/would-you-wear-food-they-are/)

  

(photo credit: http://www.urbangardensweb.com/2012/08/09/horticouture-where-garden-food-and-fashion-merge/)