TUULIKKI TOLLI
Zeitgeist Out of Date
The central element of the costume installation is a dress which has been handed down in the artists family from generation to generation since the beginning of 20th century – a dress as heritage, family relics. A heritage in which the history of generations is stored. For the wearer the identity encoded in the fabrics of a dress can be both empowering and distressing.
Despite the fact that fashion is an expression of zeitgeist, the phenomenological paradox of fashion surpasses the perpetually changing fashions of zeitgeist just as the ageless elegance of the black dress – fashion grants a social identity with the price of individuality.
In western society a black dress is also known as a mourning dress. The faster the fashion, the more fashionable rushing through life becomes, the easier it becomes to wear out the fabric of life. As a cultured society we have managed to overlook and banish the two counterparts of life – death and grief. Such alienation is a rather modern phenomenon, a privilege which was unknown to preceeding generations. Black will never be outmoded. He who sings an ode to death knows the best the taste of life.
ABOUT AUTHOR
