Event 2: Fowler Museum

The exhibit “Making Strange” by Vivan Sundaram at the Fowler Museum was absolutely fascinating. I thought it was so interesting how Sundaram designs garments from recycled materials and medical supplies. We rarely give a second thought to discarded medical materials but Sundaram created such unique and aesthetically pleasing displays. He succeeded in highlighting the interaction and inseparability of clothing/fashion and the human body.

Sundaram beautifully designed a woman’s dress and shoes made solely out of lycra orthopedic supports. He also tastefully used compressed cotton tampons, surgical masks as well as x-ray film to create an outfit. These are all materials that we only think of in terms of their medical usages, and once we use them, we nonchalantly toss them into the trashcan. It is intriguing to see how an individual can broaden the scope of his imagination so far and conceptualize striking designs such as these.

A paper cup is something that people usually see as nothing more than simply a cheap, invaluable, disposable object used for the purpose of drinking. However, Sundaram saw greater meaning in these used paper cups and constructed a giant paper cup display that was an absolute visual delight.

In this way we see how Sundaram skillfully uses trash as a starting point of his creativity. There seems to be an anti-aesthetic element in his works because he is using trash materials to create “beautiful” garments. The discarded x-ray films, bandages, paper cups, etc. when collected and put together with love and care finally acquire a sense of beauty. Even if one tries, one can no longer view them as pieces of garbage.

When one sees a mannequin in a shop window, one does not look back at it and one certainly does not go on to think about it. However, in the case of these mannequins, each one has a certain beauty and character. All the garments are made from objects one would normally see in a trashcan. In this way we see how beautifully art and medicine has been integrated. It is naïve to think that only new, shiny, beautiful things can make for good art. There is art in everything that is around us- we just have to look for it.