Game On: The World Fashion Conquest
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Wessie Ling "Game On"
A new art installation by Wessie Ling (a London-based artist) is opening at Exhibit in East London. Titled “Game On: The World Fashion Conquest,” it is meant as an exploration of the way cities use fashion to achieve a range of goals beyond simply promoting the local fashion industries.
"The focal point for the exhibit is a catwalk, which has been transformed into a giant game board with a world map on the runway. This interactive exhibit encourages viewers to play a role in the global fashion system, more specifically the fashion weeks held in 85 cities around the globe. Ling's game, inspired by the world domination game 'Risk', considers the many conflicting roles a fashion week may play in a city–from endeavouring to brand a city as a fashion capital to merely using the event to generate tourism.
Wessie Ling is a London-based visual artist whose work concerns the relation among fashion, identities, and cities. Interactive-ness is key to her work. She uses interactive installation to consider how fashion represents and connects our cultural selves. Ling is currently a Senior Lecturer at the London College of Fashion, University of the Arts London." (From Release)
Fashion Projects #5 is devoted to fashion curation, examining the meteoritic rise in relevance of fashion exhibitions.
It features interviews with an eclectic assortment of leading practitioners from different corners of the world. The issue includes long Q&As with Harold Koda, the longtime, recently retired curator of the Met’s Costume Institute, as well as the Museum at FIT’s veteran leader Valerie Steele. It also features interviews with curators in Antwerp (the ModeMuseum’s Kaat Debo), Toronto (Royal Ontario Museum’s Alexandra Palmer) and Venice (Maria Luisa Frisa); academics studying the field (Hazel Clark, Annamari Vänskä, and Alistair O’Neill); and, giving an on-the-ground perspective, the Met’s head conservator, Sarah Scaturro. The issue’s cover stars Greer Lankton’s sculptural representation of legendary Vogue editor and Costume Institute doyenne Diana Vreeland, who continues to loom over the field years after her death.
Table of Contents
Introduction
Showmanship and History: An Interview with Harold Koda by Francesca Granata
Woman of Steele: An Interview with Valerie Steele by Lisa Santandrea
Exploring Fashion’s Openness: An Interview with Kaat Debo by Alex Esculapio
London, After a Fashion Curator: An Interview with Alistair O’Neill by Alexis Romano
Curation and Conservation: An Interview with Sarah Scaturro by Mae Colburn
Reflections on Fashion Curating
An Interview with Hazel Clark and Annamari Vänskä
Fashion in the Vast Museum: An Interview with Alexandra Palmer by Ingrid Mida
Restless Curating: An Interview with Maria Luisa Frisa by Marco Pecorari