LEVEL 3, GALLERY 28
CANADA, ESTABLISHED 2016
BASED IN MONTREAL
PROJECT
Commissioned for NGV Triennial, Skin heel boots 2020 is an outcome of Fecal Matter’s interest in non-surgical forms of body modification to imagine a post-human identity. Fabricated through a moulding and painting process in collaboration with artist Sarah Sitkin, the boots comprise a hyper-realistic silicone ‘skin’ grafted onto an elevated Perspex platform. Only here the realism of toes, ankles, knees and leg muscles is counterbalanced by physical mutation: short sprouting horns and fleshy towering heel extensions. In this sense, Skin heel boots can be understood as a means of translating the freedom of the digital realm, where the self can be manipulated and edited easily and endlessly, into the offline. For Fecal Matter, fashion is a way of challenging normative social and gender roles and speculating on what it means to be human. It underscores their daily message ‘be whoever you want to be and live freely’. Be transformative.
ABOUT
Multi-disciplinary Canadian brand Fecal Matter was established by designers Steven Raj Bhaskaran (b.1993 in Canada) and Hannah Rose Dalton (b.1995 in New Zealand). The pair bonded over a passion for uncensored ideas and critical design thinking; the name of their label is a direct comment on fashion’s cycle of consumption and the emptiness of materialism. Key to their practice is the rejection of restrictive beauty standards and gender binaries. Using social media as a platform, Bhaskaran and Dalton construct a unique otherworldly aesthetic that questions what it means to be human via the use of photography, hair, make-up, clothing and prosthetics. Their work is featured on their Instagram account: @matiersfecal.
Generously supported by NGV Fashion and Textiles Supporters.