Elisa van Joolen

Description

Material is at the heart of Elisa van Joolen’s work. Often this material is the garment; the existing, already produced and used garment. She sees clothes as an interface between our body (intimate) and the outside world (contextual), and as such clothes inhabit political, social and economic relationalities and realities. They are the physical presence of immaterial histories and (possible) futures. Although garments are often placed and analyzed under a shared code system in which they exist as allegories, she sees garment as unique one-off items. As articles that equip an individual person; we are shaped by them, and at the same time, they shape us, the wearer, viewer, consumer, maker. In her work she physically unravels the garment, and as such the values and relations they inhabit. Besides exposing this, she explores and proposes new ways of interacting with the garment and she values systems that are based on care and community, subverting the dominant processes of value production.