THE DUO RECONTEXTUALISING FASHION WITHIN THE ART WORLD
Over a series of February weekends this year, friends Sarah Isabelle Tan and Josh Tirados Suarez presented a series of diaphanous, delicately embellished garments alongside experimental concrete objects in Tan’s studio in an industrial building in Tanah Merah. The set-up was cosy and tranquil with billowy curtains crafted from the same crinkled cotton viscose as the clothes – all the work of Suarez; Tan was behind the sculptures – enclosing a space in which the former would perform butoh (an avant-garde Japanese dance form) nightly. Providing the audio was an electronic producer and sound artist Mervin Wong who created a live listening experience in response to the environment.
It’s hard to categorise what the whole affair, dubbed Breath, was exactly. A fashion-meets-lifestyle showcase (all the pieces were for sale)? An art installation? Both? To attempt to though might be missing its point altogether. The duo have a background in fashion – both Temasek Polytechnic alumni, Tan majored in retail and visual merchandising; Suarez design – but they’re not bound by any one medium, says Tan, who’s better known in the art circle for her photography work. Or as Suarez puts it: “Breath came about simply because we wanted a timestamp. This is us as artists at this point in time.”
This story is from the April 2022 edition of Female Singapore.
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This story is from the April 2022 edition of Female Singapore.
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The Party Edit
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THE SOUNDS
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spirited away
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