Exhibition Research: 'Disobedient Bodies'

 'Disobedient Bodies' was shown at The Hepworth Wakefield, resolving around the concept held by designer JW Anderson wherein works by fashion designers were paired with works by fine artists to explore the way that artists and designers see and depict the body.

Anderson's work often has an undertone of exploring sexuality and gender within his work. This has been explored in the exhibition in how portrayals and ideas of sexuality and gender are seen in how we present the body. Contrastingly, it can also be seen in the exhibition, how ideas around sexuality and gender are able to be broken through fashion.

The pieces on show include sculptures by Henry Moore, Sarah Lucas and Barbara Hepworth. Their placement in the space was decided by 6a architects, whose exhibition design uses fabrics from Anderson's archive to create a series of rooms.

The exhibition involved a 3 fold curation process – the fabrics of Anderson's archive decided and separate a series of rooms; these rooms then show sculptural work focusing on the body by fine artists; Anderson then places and pairs these with design fashion pieces by designers to explore different interpretations in the body. Bringing the fluidity of the fabrics to sculpture, to more functional design.

At the centre of the space, Anderson – who was keen the exhibition include an interactive element – has created an installation of oversized jumpers that visitors can put on to transform their own bodies into abstract forms. By doing so, the interactive element embodies all stages of the threefold curation process and the three parts of the concept (fabric, sculpture and design).

I thought this curatorial idea was really interesting as it seems highly successful at bringing fashion design and fine art, something that Fashioning Our History is concerned with, together in a direct lineage, through the theme of the body.