Body and Bodies

My project is Body and Bodies, which is about the emotional dualities of patients. My purpose is based on a question: if you were seriously ill and the cure rate was less than 50%, would you choose to wait for death or to pursue active treatment? Many patients appear calm and positive to their family and friends but are filled with despair and pain. The two emotions during disease are the yearning for death or the new life of patients. Some patients yearn for death to hope for relief from the disease because of exhaustion from prolonged pain or hopelessness about treatment. Others yearn for rebirth, reflecting their desire for recovery and renewed health. Such emotions may originate from a desire to regain health and a cherished sense of family, friends and life. In addition, I did this project because it helps people understand the actual emotions of the patient and the fear and courage that they experience in regaining their lives.

 

Therefore, my design and production focus in this collection is on deconstructionism, taking a standard shirt, reshaping and reconfiguring it into a new design, perhaps by making it irregularly or crumpling it. Also, I use irregular materials which are plaster cloth and plaster powder to encase the body, which forms part of the body, or to create another body that includes a split from the body itself. Furthermore, I use the balloons and silk stocking to simulate the tumour, and I scan them with many layers as the prints. Additionally, I use medical aspects such as syringes, transparent tubes with those punctured balloons to pile up on the body so that it looks like medical waste, which, in addition to being emotionally relevant, also suggests the physical severity of the patient.

 

I will combine art, sculpture and fashion techniques to convey that "the dress is the body, and the body is the dress" through unusual bodies.  I will use the performing arts to highlight the patient's ambivalence and emotions due to their physical ailments and quirks. This can reflect their thoughts about life, acceptance of death, or hope for the future. In addition, these expressions in the garments can also show the inner world of the patients, which can arouse people's concern about the illness and provide them with psychological support to communicate warmth, hope and encourage the patients to face life bravely instead of facing all kinds of confusion and despair alone.