The role of fashion in reflecting and influencing culture, gender and identity is explored through the provocative artworks of five contemporary artists in Dress Code, currently on display at the Museum of Brisbane until 28 January 2019.
Dress Code artists Gerwyn Davies, Hannah Gartside, Lisa Hilli, Grace Lillian Lee and Emily McGuire merge art, design, craft and fashion to investigate a diversity of cultural approaches to making, wearing and buying across the Asia Pacific.
Director Renai Grace said Dress Code is part of an exciting discussion the Museum is hosting over summer that explores how fashion frames identity along with how environmental and ethical consciousness within the fashion industry and among consumers has evolved over the past decade.
“Dress Code complements our major summer exhibition The Designers’ Guide: Easton Pearson Archive by delving into how contemporary designers and artists are responding to the topics of ethical fashion and cultural identity through adornment,” said Ms Grace.
“We are delighted to have commissioned new works from Emily McGuire, Hannah Gartside and Grace Lillian Lee, each of which extends the artists’ ongoing investigations of collaboration, consumerism and identity within fashion. Visitors can expect to see a range of artistic interpretations of the many and complicated issues around ethical and slow fashion beautifully explored through various artistic disciplines.”
‘“One of my favourite pieces in Dress Code is an installation by Lisa Hilli that incorporates strings of glass beads referencing the trade beads used as both a form of adornment and a currency between Australian Colonialists and the Indigenous peoples of Papua New Guinea.
“Gerwyn Davies’ photographs of exaggerated and playful scenarios cannot fail to lift the spirits and curiosity of the viewer. Dress Code will also feature wearable artworks from Grace Lillian Lee, drawing upon her Torres Strait Islander heritage, as well as a stunning, new large-scale kinetic sculptural work from Hannah Gartside.”
Gerwyn Davies will also be Artist-in-Residence at the Museum until 23 November. During his residency, Gerwyn will create a series of costume and still-life photographic works inspired by the Museum of Brisbane Collection. Visitors are encouraged to join Gerwyn for a chat.
Dress Code
Museum of Brisbane, Level 3 – City Hall, King George Square, Brisbane
Exhibition continues to 28 January 2019
Free entry
For more information, visit: www.museumofbrisbane.com.au for details.
Image: Gerwyn Davies, Poodle, 2016 (detail). Archival inkjet print – image courtesy the artist.