Bart Hess in Future Perfect at Lisbon Architecture Triennale
Bart hess creates digital artefacts which are a representation of what the future of fashion could look like
In his new work ‘garment district’, commissioned especially for the exhibition
future perfect (on show in the
museu da eletricidade ) a programme of ‘close, closer ‘ at the
3rd Lisbon architecture triennale,
we
see the Dutch designer slowly dipping a model into a large tank of
melted wax, using the viscous substance to explore the shapes and forms
of the human body.
image © designboom
Bart Hess explains:
‘our bodies are endlessly photographed, monitored and laser scanned with millimetre precision. from this context of surveillance, facial recognition, avatars and virtual ghosts, we imagine a near future where digital static, distortions and glitches become a new form of ornament. for the youth tribes of future perfect the body is a site for adaption, augmentation and experimentation. they celebrate the corruption of the body data by moulding within their costumery all the imperfections of a decaying scan file. shimmering in the exhibition landscape is a network of geometric reflective pools of molten wax. their mirrored surface is broken by a body, suspended from a robotic harness, plunging into the liquid. a crust of wax crystallises around its curves and folds, growing architectural forms, layer by layer, like a 3D printer drawing directly onto the skin. slowly the body emerges, encased in a dripping wet readymade prosthetic. it is a physical glitch, a manifestation of corrupt data in motion, a digital artefact. they hang from hooks like a collection of strange beasts and frozen avatars. body prints, imperfect and distorted and always utterly unique.’
