Shift and Transform

Shift and Transform is a series of garments that were designed to be images. This concept informed the making of the garments, analyzing the relationship between the real garment and its representation. Focusing on the two dimensional nature of an image, the garments were created with flat panels as part of their structure. The work discusses the process of transforming a garment into an image; the idea that through photography, clothing is transformed into a flat garment by becoming a flat image. With this work I wanted to expose the image and discuss the transformation from the real into the representation . My depiction of clothing is not about a practical application, but about conceptualizing and highlighting this translation. The images look at the point of transformation and at how the two forms of a garment can be merged. Here knowledge is embedded in the garment, aware that it must change to become an image, the physical garment displays qualities associated with its representation and begins to engage with the image clothing that it is to become. The stark white panels of the garments further transcend their existence as clothing and reclaim the paper that existed before the images were printed onto it. The garments appear to cut themselves out of the image; having become an image, become their own representation, the garments begin to question their existence in the image. With my work I wish to discuss the consumption of clothing through images, while also seeking out a greater understanding of what it means to create a representation of a garment.