in camera, new robotic clothing by ying gao
Montreal-based fashion designer Prof. Ying Gao Returns with her latest mind bending The Robotics Industry Clothing collection exploring this time photographic ambiguity and blurred identity. Two garments are featured in the In camera project. They have camera detectors which come to life when you photograph them. Nodding to British figurative artist Francis Bacon’s portraits, paintings created from photographs, these garments evoke hybrid and provisional entities. Their ambivalence is at the heart of the work whose name says it all: both private, behind closed doors (the literal translation of ‘In camera’), and public since they depend on the gaze of the viewer/photographer. In the end, we have a set of two living portraits which echo strangers’ faces, partly hidden behind phones and cameras. They merge into a gallery that is both unique and similar.
all images © Maude Arsenault
Reviving three-dimensionality and material of clothing
Ying Gao Here is a link to the article) counteracts that ‘haziness’ by inviting the models to move and ruffle the In camera garments. When their bodies interact with the PVDF and mesh textiles, the clothing gains substance and presence. In the context of images that are overloaded, objects can often be lacking these qualities. This ‘drowned out’ impression can be traced back to the fashion industry, where clothing is constantly photographed and pasted onto the smoothed-out surfaces of magazines and screens, pushing the audience to no longer consider the full range of its dimensions. The image can flatten, or even diminish, the garment. In camera gives it new life by bringing out its 3Dity, and reflecting the complexity of the wearer.
Ying Gao presents her latest garment collection, In camera
‘The relationship I’ve had with images has been one of ambiguity. Fashion designer images, while important, tend to make everything flat and unfaithful. To give a garment life is to challenge its status as a passive prosthesis. To give clothing objects voice is to emancipate, free them of a passiveness they did not choose.,’ Fashion designers are often reflected in their designs.
The designer uses camera detectors to turn her clothing into living portraits
the ambiguous clothing recalls British artist Francis Bacon’s portraits
The In camera Clothing Detail Closeup
Ying Gao’s designs are hazy, but she counters this with movement.