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Fashion ForWords calls for societal change through clothing
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All eyes: A. Andamari used four different looks to highlight how women are constantly judged by their bodies and clothes. (The Jakarta Post/Seto Wardhana)
F
ashion ForWords exhibition has brought together four artists, each of whom have their own takes on fashion but share the same goal: to reclaim identity.
Running until May 18 at Cemara 6 Gallery, InterSastra’s Fashion ForWords displays the works of Ayudilamar, A. Andamari, Wangsit Firmantika and the As-Salam Collective.
The exhibition, which also includes workshops and artist discussions, is the brainchild of author Eliza Vitri Handayani, who was responsible for the House of the Unsilenced exhibition, held last year in the same venue.
Fashion ForWords, according to Eliza, came from a place of concern regarding repressive acts that threaten freedom of expression in Indonesia, particularly in recent times with the rise of conservatism.
Eliza’s own experience of repression came when the launch of her novel From Now On Everything Will Be Different at the 2015 Ubud Writers & Readers Festival was cancelled after warnings from the police, which cited political concerns.
“To protest the intervention of the police, I printed quotes from the novel on a T-shirt, which I wore every day to the festival. I got the idea from there on how to use clothes to overcome repression, how they can offer resistance. I think they can, hence Fashion ForWords.”
The exhibition title is also a play on “fashion forward”, a term that refers to styles that will become trendy in the future.
