Latika Balachander
Sircling the Cquare
As we journey into an increasingly virtual and intangible reality, is there an opportunity for our tactile fabrics to journey with and even reorient us? Can they exist in our future worlds to remind us of the value of current traditional, low-tech practices that we may soon forget?
Referencing the fabric languages of knits and wovens, this collection of garments, that I term “Earthsuits,” embodies the stages of metamorphosis as we adjust to a new phase of our perceptive reality. With an emphasis on circling, we loop through virtual squares like screens and pixels, to the circles of the physical world—organic life cycles and saris.
Inspired by the transformation of the silkworm (egg, larva, cocoon, and moth) and the tradition of woven saris in India (a flat, 5-meter long rectangle wrapped around the body), I present these textile constructions as portable, nomadic objects for a speculative future.
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