Histories of fashion change periodicity. Fashion speaks to and from its time and reflects both trends and personal preferences. It also reflects personal memory and experience—a piece of clothing can typify a certain period of one’s life.
I use clothing in my work to question one’s behavior and social conditioning.
I believe fashion springs from boredom; boredom with the natural shape of the body. Since the beginning of mankind, humans have made clothing to attract and to “create” new bodies. By regularly altering what we wear, we maintain interest and curiosity between ourselves and others. The body can be seen as a raw material for new creations and finding beauty.
“It is certainly not true that there is in the mind of man any universal standard of beauty with respect to the human body. It is possible that certain tastes may in the course of time become inherited. We need variety, beyond existing standards.”
– Charles Darwin
We do not create an image of ourselves that is permanent. We always aim to improve ourselves and we have the uncontrollable impulse to rearrange, to restyle. Taste is ephemeral.
My work ‘A Taste of Behind’ relates to the changing notion or standard of when and if particular parts of the body are appropriate to be seen or on display and when they are not. I created barkcloth coverings with two holes, one for an armpit and one showing off the butt. Bark clothing has been worn in Indonesia for thousands of years and during the colonial era, mostly covered the genitals. Subjects of the colonies were eventually forced to alter the design of their bark clothing however to cover their bodies more fully and eventually were forced to wear cloth fibers.
In ‘A Taste of Behind’ I seek to start a new trend by displaying a part of the human body that is still typically covered: the butt.