gimme shelter

fashionRIP Project is a multimedia fashion/arts/info installation but it is also an experiment.

What will a sustainable fashion retail shop, next to DIY workshops, across from a gallery space, next to a community hall all bent on street up economics with for profit and non-profit aspects in a co-op build look like. Well it looks fantabulous in my specs. With the input of like minded active dream builders the design begins from an ideal and adjusts as necessary to allow form and function to inform the whole.

fashionRIP taught me many "how to" basics; but more; it taught me that this is do-able in a larger scale. With science breakthroughs in brain imaging; quantum theories, biology and eco system patterns this type of organization is akin to our very humaness, this is how we evolved and this is why launching the next phase is important. Staying still stagnates and stagnation leads to decay...and that stinks.

Edges

and other frayed details.

A reconstruction has a beauty that original intent can never achieve. The history of the deconstruction adds authenticity. The machine made mass produced garment that attempts to cater to short lived trends carries the energy of a greedy machine that dehumanizes populations.

Sweatshop labor is just a resource albeit human and chemical fixes (formaldehyde, VOCs, PFCs etc) abound even though many of them have multiple health risks associated with them; well that risk is usually acceptable as proof is the responsibility of the injured. Since it is not easy to isolate and condemn one chemical from the toxic mix up our bodies are dealing with, the power remains with the industry. We are targets and stats in a race to expand markets. Corporate language dehumanizes us as we cater to its needs- the needs of a system at the expense of our own.

Eventually this whole thing will implode for it is not wise to kill stakeholders, contaminate and overuse natural and other resources or allow job descriptions to rule over the empathetic laws of humanity.

Montana

why?
Mom saw wild horses there when she was a kid. Her father had piled the family into a big ol pick-up leaving the Hunky Dory Resort, his parents and brother behind after some kind of fight over inheritance. Its a family mystery and grandpa never talked about it. He was brought up to be stoic and silent.
Anyway my mother remembered the herd of wild horses against the Montana sky and the romance of that image pulls me.
The skirts are from reused fabrics-an Xmas tablecloth, upholstery remnants, dyed lace from an old dress and fabric from my Zootsuit days