Names are the language we use, assigned to objects. Their verbal identity. They conceal and reveal. One must understand language, to understand a name. What’s in identity? Visually we identify through appearance, and we appear through clothing. Clothing is a language without speech. Clothing is a name, is an identity.
Fabric manipulation, and the question of identity are intertwined throughout my practice. Fabric conceals and reveals, our identities are concealed or revealed, the similar way in which they both exist, intrigues me. I am proud of my identity as a Reform Jewish woman, and I utilize mediums such as embroidery, dressmaking and stitch, which have been classically used to suppress women, in an effort to reclaim my identity, and provoke conversation. I imagine my own environments in which these outfits can exist, photographing and manipulating the images, looking the semi-permanence of installation, and using postproduction to ultimately create something which does not exist in real life.
My work is heavily inspired by Elaine Reichek, Jacqueline Nicholls and Daisy Collingridge, and looks to merge the divide between fashion and art, in an Alexander McQueen like fashion. My clothes are more than just fabric, they attempt to reiterate an idea that others perception of our identity can be changed, by how we look. I don’t want to be held by the constraints of ‘Fine Art’, or by the rigorous rules of ‘Fashion Design’, just as I don’t want to be solely defined by my religion, but want to be proud of it and outspoken, and will continue to make work that says Fuck You to both institutions.
הצהרת אמני סופי גוטליב
SOPHIE GOTTLIEB ARTIST STATEMENT