About
Soma Poiesis in an exploration of sartorial embodiment - in other words - what it means to be dressed. This set of videos comprise close readings of micro-corporeal movements of the dressed body.
The films emerge from an iterative process involving the design and making of garments and their use in sartorial sessions. These were participatory activities where people try on, wear and interact with a series of fashion garments in combination with sensory-tactile materials such as water, sand and seeds. The sessions generated bodily movements, which were then subject to close examination. The movements and actions the anonymous subjects enact would pass unnoticed within the vast majority of our face to face interactions; not only because they are ephemeral and transitory, but rather their embeddedness within unfolding flows of human movement mean they don’t carry the legible meanings we are conditioned to see. They are the ordinary and mundane micro-bodily adjustments bodies are always making - a small movement of the hand to smooth a garment or to emphasize expression, a scratch of our face, a small step to vary posture or orientation; or any of the multitude of movement variations human beings enact.
The videos and accompanying fragments of text address the significance of these mundane micro-bodily movements and amplifies those movements so they become available to others. They are an invitation to identify directly with moving images through representations of sensorial experience of those depicted. Thus, the significance of this project emerges from examination of the relationship between fashion and embodiment and the re-directive potential stemming from representations of sartorial experience grounded in the shared-ness of sensorial experience.
Biography
Todd Robinson is an artist working primarily in sculpture, installation and video as well as fashion. His artistic interests stem from long-term engagement with issues of fashion, clothing and the body informed by his experiences working as a fashion designer in the 1990s and early 2000s. His work often deploys ambiguous and fictional representations of material which engender tactile and visceral responses to the artwork. His work has been exhibited widely throughout Australia as well as the US, Europe and Asia. He has received numerous grants and residencies including Australian Council of the Arts, New Work Grants (2004, 2014, 2016 ) and public art commissions. His works are held in the public collections of Ipswich Art Gallery, Queensland; National Gallery of Victoria; ARTBANK; and Woollahra Council.
Credits
This project would not be possible without the generous involvement of the individuals who participated. These include Sam, Joy, Zepp, Bruno and Narmine. Thank you to Gary Warner for videography and Nahum McLean for garment making.
In the making of this work its author acknowledges the Gadigal People of the Eora and the Boorooberongal People of the Dharug Nation upon whose ancestral lands these works were made. I would pay respect to the Elders both past and present, acknowledging them as the traditional custodians of knowledge for these lands.
Links
http://www.toddrobinson.com.au/projects.html
http://www.uts.edu.au/staff/todd.robinson
Contact
Todd.Robinson@uts.edu.au
Website
http://ze-studio.com