​Exhibition

This solo exhibition was shown in Feb 2016 during London fashion week, at the Unit G gallery in Hackney, with a private view encompassing a repeat live show, by the performance artist Katrina Darling. Showcased were a collection of worn objects, made by the artist over her years as a costume maker and her transition period as an independent artist.  

  Woven through the work, is the artist’s intrigue with transformation and symbols. Older costume pieces are abstracted from folklore, loosely based on traditional historic dress to create characters of fiction. Newer pieces were equally considered for a certain individual, imbued with the artist’s own visual language of personal sigils (a form of written spell). In such pieces, the imagery/embellishment has played a direct role from the start, in developing the overall mood and construction of a garment.

  These works in collection examine our relationship with clothes. Aside from their practical function, clothes communicate something about us, consciously or otherwise. Certain garments are often used in rituals or religious ceremonies; they can empower the individual, help them in mental preparation, as well as signifying them as part of a group. Particular items are in themselves a symbol, with many different interpretations, for example the cloak, by some, historically symbolised a cover for salvation and protection, whereas in the Jewish tradition it represented kingship and regality.

Interpretation then becomes very interesting as these objects, were made to be worn by characters, as part of an imagined world. The relevance of seeing the garments in live performance is to see how imagination can be used real time, in the creation of new rituals.