My question looks into how clothing alters space and how the inhabited, altered space informs movement.
Living and working on Gadigal country, space means land, water, air and the connections between.
How do we take care of land? How do we take care of water? How do we remind ourselves to do this?
This work by Tomás Saraceno illustrates my thoughts. The spider webs form an additional, more intimate environment for the spiders. The webs function similarly to clothing, the way clothing envelopes space before space envelopes body.
I looked into ways of caring for land, from cultures I have grown up with. Rituals and practices from Singapore, Malaysia, South East Asia and China.
Those surrounding Guan Yin, Mazu and Datuk Gong resonated. What I found however was that most practices revolved around asking for gods, goddesses and deities for things, seldom looking to give back.
Being born on Awabakal land and now having the great privilege to live on Gadigal land, I feel the immense pressure to learn how to care for land. As a settler growing up in Singapore where land has been taken, developed and gentrified, not respected and revered.
Then, I found similarities between Welcome to Country and how the Chinese have called upon deities such as Mazu for safe passage across seas. My cultural knowing includes a respectful knowing for all land.
Within historic Chinese dress I found rituals for knowing and respecting land.
Infusing tradition into clothing through intentional design, the shen yi (深衣) like most clothing within the Chinese dress systems includes the ideas of clothing being in harmony with nature, and representative of the wearer’s role in society.
I focus on the concepts behind the construction rules that give meaning to the clothing.
Soaking and drying
Ripping, stitching and wearing