©copyright by veronicaalkmimfranca
ART WEAR
©copyright by veronicaalkmimfranca
In the 70.s a new artistic area was defined , in the United States, as Wearable Art which lies beyond the concept of Haute Couture and of Fashion, also excluding all the other creators and/or designers integrated in the large clothing industry, understood as an erudite segment of the decorative arts.
Art to wear or Fiber Art defines itself essentially as a form of body ornamentation, having an expressive and transforming relationship with the latter, a mobile vehicle for seduction and individualization. This last characteristic is most important , since the rare , the unique, the exotic and the original are fundamental marks of this novel, this other textile typology which only want to assert itself as an ephemeral and installable version of contemporary multifaceted aesthetic currents, The existence of doubles is allowed but not desirable, for the philosophy subsumed in the assumption and the desire of not being repeated.
This requirement prevents ambiguities and the comparison with whatever gruff, the project liberates itself from this vocation to become according to the essential project, an art object. This defines Wearable Art as the structure of a language whose construction and visual side were denominated as ROUPARTE, by its Brazilian representatives.
This new word alert us, immediately, to the material used in this visual expression, related with artistic excellence and having, as a result, a product which is inherent to its function a clothing but somewhat different, in essence, by being outside and beyond the category of a protection-adornment of the body, yet is an integral part of the fashion world. This standard which it sets curettes a situation which is outside and daily hierarchy and gives a different status to ROUPARTE, in which that work Verônica Alkmim França has been developing can be integrated.
WEARABLE ART OR ART OF THE CLOTHES
©copyright by veronicaalkmimfranca
Verônica Alkmim França started by expressing her creativity by making dolls dresses. Her childhood experimentation led to the manufacture of works which are characterised by the unusual way she uses certain elements such as small coffee spoons, sofa springs, pins and sieves for the creation of a playful image which is simultaneously ironic and somewhat provocative.
To this artist " the human body is vital and unique, it is the only thing that we are certain to posses until the end of our lives. In this space one includes outfits as wearable art ,dolls as sculptures or the other languages, that in a way or other, came back to the space of the body in its historical experience, including rational and emotional implications.
By substituting classical and traditional buttons for locks, Verônica alludes to the prision like conditions of woman within the context of contemporary society. On the other hand , similar details suggest that the introduction of objects from the domestic sphere, such as sieves, metamorphose the visual meaning of the dresses, clearly indicating the dependence and the restricted horizons which often constitute and determine the feminine universe.
With this somewhat spectacular mode of representation, Verônica Alkmim França wishes to convey the scenario and the habitat which her creations will inhabit, where their textile presence manifests in silence, in order to perform that solitary operation which every body perpetually renews and contains.
Umberto Eco already recognised that " the language" of dress " such as verbal language, does not merely help to convey meaning before certain significative forms. they also identify ideological positions " and these are openly transmitted to us by Verônica Alkmim França , in a veiled accusation regarding the condition of women, in this historical moment we are living. For the message is not one of perversion, but it rather accentuates the difference and complementary of women, and should be understood as rigorous in its content and meaning. The need to create a habitat demonstrates furthermore, the right to fulfillment and the perennial urgency to communicate the right to be different. By creating these forms, by imagining these decorative elements, by choosing to sprinkle crude and metalized tonalities to the habits which she exhibits, Verônica Alkmim França has defined the right proportions for her work, the inherent accessories. She conceived these adornments and integrated them in a magical and symbolic ambience which he or she display, assuming in his or her appearance within the community. This persona which he or she display, assuming in his or her appearance the right to show and exhibit their being, transformed by the manner in which they sport their garments.
These interpretation are suggested by association in response to the highly developed aesthetic side to Veronica Alkmim França's work, so far removed from the crystallisation of daily wear. Fantasy is exalted and refinement is honoured here. One cannot help but admire the creativity of theses works and its is a pleasure to look, observe and examine in detail the threads, the magnet polychrome of textures, trying to understand the questions which Verônica Alkmim França's conceiving all of these images and which answers she found, which paths she tread which led her to the present exhibition.
Madalena Braz Teixeira
Director of National Costume Museum/Lisbon, Portugal