Join us for a tour of Westwood | Kawakubo in Auslan, led by Elizabeth Reed. Following the tour, we welcome you to stay, connect with other Auslan users and enjoy the NGV Friday Nights event bars and dining. No English interpretation will be provided.
About Westwood | Kawakubo
This major international exhibition pairs the work of two of the most influential fashion designers in recent history, Vivienne Westwood and Rei Kawakubo of Comme des Garçons.
Beginning their careers in the 1970s working in different countries and cultural contexts, British-born Vivienne Westwood (1941–2022), and Japanese designer Rei Kawakubo (b.1942), introduced a rule-breaking radicalism to fashion by subverting the status quo. As self-taught, independent practitioners, Westwood and Kawakubo’s affinity lies in their uncompromising originality anchored in a desire for personal freedom, autonomy, and social and aesthetic change. Their unorthodox approaches have similarly questioned conventions of taste, gender and beauty, the body, and garment form and function to change how we think about fashion.
Bringing together works from the NGV Collection with selected important loans from international museums and private collections, the exhibition highlights key collections and concerns, showcasing over 140 designs that explore the convergences and divergences between the two designers’ work.
About the Presenter
Elizabeth Reed (sign name: Lizard) is an artist and Teacher of the Deaf living and working on Wurundjeri and Bunurong lands. She grew up with fond memories of attending NGV exhibitions frequently with her parents. Today, Elizabeth is dedicated to deaf advocacy, working at the only surviving primary to secondary deaf school in Australia with deaf children to overcome their learning and social barriers. Elizabeth also unpacks issues affecting deaf people through her art, challenging general perceptions of deafness as “less able”.
Resources
Exhibition resources coming soon.
This program is generously supported by donors who wish to be anonymous.