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'Wearable art' : 

Adorning oneself in earth, sea and sky

by JAYANTHI LIYANAGE



Melanie receiving a dash of wearable body paint.

The spirit of a person is like a sponge. As it sails across the sea of life, it soaks up the impressions tossed at it from the many encounters of the panorama surrounding it: the sky, the earth, the sea and the sand, and all those little forms of animate and inanimate expressions such as boats, fishing tackle, sea shells, stones and the different hues of the fisher life which roll on in their midst.

The impressions we gather are what attire us and give each one of us his or her personal identity. As such, the art we wear rises beyond mass commodification to make its unique personal statement.

The concept of wearable art transcends the frame of "body" or "mannequin", fusing many disciplines. It rolls the roles of the artist, the fashion designer and the craftsman into inventing one single expression of feelings and emotions - an intimacy shared by all these three - as well as the wearer -if there must be one - which is not necessarily so.

Wearable art brings to its audiences the immensity of our civilisation's garb, giving it a new dimension way above the commonly-worn mass production. Can an artist attempt the same conversation between the modern persona and the traits of tradition, craft and folk livelihoods with art which hangs on a wall?

This was the reasoning which brought 16 young artists to the down south shores of the Bay Beach Hotel at Weligama for a 10-day residential workshop from November 3-13, to interpret the theme "Body Wrap/Wearable Art".


The shapes, textures and colours on the Weligama beach.

It was the seventh of the series of annual international artlink workshops, jointly held by the British Council, Alliance Francaise, Goethe Institute and the Vibhavi Academy of Fine Arts (VAFA).

The 13 Sri Lankan participants were a mix of artists, sculptors, and students of fashion and jewellery design drawn from the Institute of Aesthetic Studies - University of Kelaniya, VAFA, Department of Design and Textile - University of Moratuwa and the New York School of Visual Art-Colombo.

The three European artists, Katja Then, Melanie Bonnier and Simon Thorogood were respectively drawn from the cultural institutes of Germany, France and the U.K.

The participants, who were divided into three groups to gather their own expressions of wearable art, outlined on video how they were inspired by the fishing industry of the Southern Province in their definition of wearable art for Artlink 2003. "We stretched our imagination in the shapes, textures and colours we observed in the layers of sky, sea, land and the hotel," explained Mahesh Peiris from the University of Kelaniya. "Our inspirations came from the textures of fishing nets and sacks used in collecting fish, the shapes of ropes tied up in knots, the patterns of shells strewn on sand, the fisher-folk attire and many emotional experiences we had in Weligama."

Prasanna Liyanage, co-ordinator of the camp, who came from the Faculty of Architecture - University of Moratuwa, spoke of discussing body philosophy with the participants as part of this art endeavour.

The garments-in-progress laid out for us, as any other legitimate artistic expression, were aesthetic fantasies into which space an individual could step in, if she or he desired. Nevertheless, standing on their own, the fashions created a spectacle of wonder at how skilfully the surrounding environment had been woven into their creation.

The Octopus, a dress inspired by its namesake, stood on the beach with its white tentacles stretched out to the sea. Melanie had explored her feelings as a mermaid in the dress she wore as "the mystery of the sea". At first glance, it was difficult to differntiate the painted T-shirt and shorts one participant had on, resembling the garb of the boatmen around.

The theme of rope surfaced again and again, as neck drapes and body drapes against garments of fishing net and sack.

One dress contrived from cord and fishing rope, conjecturing the emotion of exhilaration of height, was a liberated expression which transcended beyond the frame of "garment" to become an art work in itself. "Remember the bad floods in the South? We thought it would be a very good idea to have this workshop in the South using Southern material, so that we could help in a small way to regenerate the South," explained Tony O'Brien, Director, British Council, of the rationale of conducting the workshop in the South. "For me, the process is more important than the end-product.

When you bring people together, you would like to see how they work together with a whole range of media and a whole range of different wearable things.

I like this diversity and the energy of working as a team to expand their horizons, which is very important for any artist before one ventures into commercial art or designing."

The expressions culled by the participants from Weligama in the form of Body Wrap/Wearable Art will be on display to the public at the Barefoot Gallery from November 16-20.

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