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Bricolage. n. : construction (as of a sculpture or a structure of ideas) achieved by using whatever comes to hand; also : something constructed in this way |
What is the present? Physics can neither define nor establish its hyperplane. In a way, the present is an entirely subjective experience, in that it is for an individual the ‘here’ (where I am) and ‘now’ (when I am) of their existence. We place ourselves within a context by recognising signs and symbols in our environment, establishing our identity by making references to the contexts that have come before that moment, as far as we recognise them ourselves, and by making references to the contexts that we anticipate will form us in the future. In this way we all live in our own personal present, one that emerged from countless potential presents, dependant on what our minds choose to recognise. If culture is the identifiable context of our present(s), then what is culture but a series of cross references and simulacra of what is imagined to have passed and what is imagined to come? Fashion, so tied into being a representation of an individual within a culture, is cross-referential, a bricolage of contrasting and similar messages, in much the same way that culture is a bricolage of contexts. Rather than being an authentic or faithful representation, it is the creation of a new present from the imagined (the future) and the past, just as culture is the bricolage, collage and juxtaposition of our (sometimes collective) memories and dreams.
With my collection I want to explore the process of inspiration that we are trapped in as designers; I want to physically tell the story of our process of layering and juxtaposition and fusion. Inspired by what surrounds us- our present - we create garments that become tied into someone else’s identity. These in turn become part of the collage that surrounds and inspires us; a never-ending cycle. We take a multitude of inspirations and fuse them together in a process of bricolage, but this simply mirrors what we do subconsciously as humans. Inspired by the construction of identity that goes on everywhere, I construct something, in order for it to become a part of someone else’s construction and a way for others to build up their visual identity as they choose how to wear them.
I work with textures and layering in my garments, using interesting contrasts of texture and print to highlight the body. I want to play with the fusion and contrast present in the ‘construction’ process of garments ant the prints in order to reference this collage. For me, my prints were a way of exploring this process in visual form. I wanted to take the cliches of digging through the past (into rocks and minerals) and imagining what is to come (by looking at the cosmos) and juxtapose them in a conscious act of bricolage. Yet, regardless of what histories I see in the designs they can be worn; it is the references that other people make from them that will give them a new identity and allow them to become part of an ongoing visual dialogue.