Liz Collins (USA, b.1968) and Gary Graham (USA, b.1969) --- --- Pride Dress from the Seven Deadly Sins series 2003
As the 21st century dawned, an emerging generation of artists expanded the performance of self-fashioning, in which dress functions as a signifier of disidentification with the dominant social orders; their aim was to formulate modes of expression that affirm communal identity. In an age when issues of race, ethnicity, religion, gender, and sovereignty dominate national and geopolitical discourse, textiles, "as dense and multivalent sites of encryption," may, art historian Julia Bryan-Wilson argues, "alert others to our sense of self and signal our attempt to collectively belong."
In 2003 Liz Collins created "Pride Dress", in collaboration with designer Gary Graham, as part of a series of representations of the seven deadly sins. Today, the tattered gown with its torn and distressed flags precariously tacked together transcends its initial signification to reverberate with the roiling gender wars that rend the fabric of American society.
Liz Collins (USA, b.1968) and Gary Graham (USA, b.1969) --- --- Pride Dress from the Seven Deadly Sins series 2003
As the 21st century dawned, an emerging generation of artists expanded the performance of self-fashioning, in which dress functions as a signifier of disidentification with the dominant social orders; their aim was to formulate modes of expression that affirm communal identity. In an age when issues of race, ethnicity, religion, gender, and sovereignty dominate national and geopolitical discourse, textiles, "as dense and multivalent sites of encryption," may, art historian Julia Bryan-Wilson argues, "alert others to our sense of self and signal our attempt to collectively belong."
In 2003 Liz Collins created "Pride Dress", in collaboration with designer Gary Graham, as part of a series of representations of the seven deadly sins. Today, the tattered gown with its torn and distressed flags precariously tacked together transcends its initial signification to reverberate with the roiling gender wars that rend the fabric of American society.