Page 8 - DUT Conduit Aug/Sept 2021

Scott Designs A Visual Feast At International Exhibitions
Waheeda Peters
Lee Nicole Scott, a Fashion and Textiles lecturer from the Durban University of Technology Fashion and Textiles Department, shares her exciting fashion experiences at the 2020 and 2021 International Fashion Art Biennale in Seoul.
She heard of the exhilarating exhibitions through DUT’s Sunthra Moodley, who sent her the invitation for the call to submit for the exhibitions in the last two years.
“I have exhibited twice at this International Fashion Art Biennale, both in 2020 and in 2021. In 2020, there was an open invitation/ call to which I submitted my work. I feel very honoured to have had the opportunity to exhibit for two years consecutively in Korea, as it is fantastic to be able to exhibit in an international arena,” she said.
Scott spoke about her first exhibit, saying that because of the pandemic and worldwide restrictions, the Korea Fashion and Culture Association (FCA) held the Fashion Art Biennale in November as an ‘innovative online
performance event’, a digital fashion show that opened on 19 November 2020.
“The title of my fashion art submission was: ‘Memory’. I created a colourful long shift dress, painted and encrusted with Barbie clothes and accessories. It represents old memories of wishes as a child, and revisited wishes grounded in simpler times. Inspired by my visceral response to lockdown level 5, these emotive responses are represented by both Barbie and an elongated Venus figurine. Being afforded the opportunity to create in the ‘round’, so to speak, moved me away from a two dimensional format to that of the three dimensional. The digital nature of the exhibition allowed for a ‘multi-dimensional’ viewing of the garment. The dress and simple act of walking the dress on the digital ramp lent a performative aspect to the exhibition of the garment,” she said.
In 2021, she was one of seven artists who were invited to exhibit at the International Fashion Art Biennale in Korea 2021. The theme for this was: ‘LOCALRising JEJU’, which took place on the Korean island of Jeju, at the Jeju Stone Park Exhibition Centre from 15 July to 15 August 2021.
Describing her work further, she said that the title of her fashion art piece is: ‘I Breathe my Histories in, out, in and out’.
“This wearable art piece started off being about rock, lava, the sea and nature in general. As an initial response to the sub- theme, I free wrote connecting my childhood passion for basalt domes and ‘koppies’ with the core of Jeju island, volcanic rock and the life-supporting sea. These writings became five poems, connecting heritage, culture and history to the igneous rock from which Jeju was formed. I found that I could not separate
nature from myth and heritage, and the animist in me drew on the ancestor shamanic interconnections of the people with the land and sea,” she said.
She indicated that the silhouette of the outer garment is inspired by the shape of a sea shell; that of a cowrie.
“The ‘shell’ is textured to represent lava; the herons and fish connect land and sea with each other and the printed poems viewed through the ‘eye’ of the shell, represents core feminine histories and matriarchal abundance. The small cards on the garment decorating both the front and back are threaded through the surface of the outer garment and are representative of prayers, fears and celebrations. Sections of the poems, bells and other amulet objects are attached to the cards.
The threads of the cards are expressive of the strong seasonal winds; the amulets and bells are to aid the prayers in being heard. The veil is evocative of the weddedness of the land/sea connection, the circular headpiece and motifs, like the former Jeju flag, further symbolises the interdependency of man with nature; sun, women, wind and stone,” she said.
Scott hopes to continue showcasing her fashion pieces of artwork and inspire fashion students at DU T to continue creating exciting, innovative pieces for international platforms like the International Fashion Art Biennale in Seoul.
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