skirting-the-issue

‘Skirting-the-Issue’ was to be a series of non-bifurcated garments for men as a site to explore issues of gender fluidity, hegemonic masculinity and cultural appropriation.  Taking its cue from prevailing Australian masculine motifs and archetypes, it seeked to ask why the skirts remain a taboo within the men’s wardrobe. What signifiers are embodied in the skirt? Is there a way to reconfigure the artefact to make the men’s skirt relevant and ‘wearable’ to the Australian male consumer?  It proposed to look at mining ‘Asian’ history and motifs as a potential gateway into men’s skirt wearing (including the Changshan, Sarongs and Hakama).  With populist fashion following the recent lead of Gucci with the recurring use of `oriental’ motifs, when does appropriation inadvertently become ‘yellow face’?  How does the identity of the designer/wearer/shopper inform culturally ‘appropriate’ appropriation?

The first and only work `Blue China’ was exhibited as part of a group show titled ‘THE EDGES AND IN-BETWEEN’ at RMIT FIRST SITE GALLERY as part of VAMFF Arts Program

7-21 March 2018

BLUE CHINA, 2017

Digital printed silk with metal hardware

Botanical Illustration (printed on fabric) by botanist Dr Alastair Robinson of a plant he discoverded in Western Australia.