mutaforma (2017-

 
photography © Damian Stephens 2020

photography © Damian Stephens 2020

 
 
 

“Nirgends, Geliebte, wird Welte sein, alls innen,”

“Nowhere, beloved, does any world exist save that within.
Life spends itself in the act of transformation, dissolving, bit by bit.”

Rainer Maria Rilke

Evolving from an increasing movement toward a predominately art-based practice, the first of the MUTAFORMA works unfolded. Building upon the advanced material fabrication techniques developed through her couture work BRUTALIST and inspired by ancient folkloric stories of shapeshifting and the constant metamorphosis of the natural world - I created the original MUTAFORMA inhabitable sculptures - an installation & performance-based investigation of cloth. - which were exhibited in collaboration with sound artist, Michele Vescio, and dancers, James Andrews and Benjamin Hancock, as part of curator Virginia Dowzers’ exhibition FOR CURIOUS EYES ONLY (Melbourne, September 2017).

In 2018, commissioned by Glider Global, the MUTAFORMA works were developed further as a temporary live installation work to be held in the Calyx at Sydney's Royal Botanical Gardens as part of VIVID FESTIVAL (Sydney, May/ June 2018). The work was inhabited by dancers Holly Durant, Samuel Harnett-Welk and Lily Paskas with live sound performance by musician Benjamin Skepper.

Following an invitation to collaborate with internationally recognised, award-winning, Melbourne artist Camille Hannah, a new MUTAFORMA work was created in response to Camille’s BARBARIANS series. Expanding on both techniques and concepts explored in the earlier series incarnations, I affected not only the structure of silk cloth through fabrication but also its texture and colour, through natural dye processes, to create an undulating silken structure, continuing to invoke imaginings of cloth as both sculpture and transformative chrysalis. This work was inhabited by James Andrews for the opening of BARBARIANS and exhibited alongside Hannahs’ paintings at Sophie Gannon Gallery, (Melbourne, May/ June 2018).

Various MUTAFORMA works have since been exhibited nationally (ARTS CENTRE, M/FW August/ September 2018), internationally (WE ARE LUXURY, Hong Kong Business of Design Week, October 2018), they have appeared on stage, in various music videos, and featured in multiple magazine editorials and art photography both nationally and internationally.

photography © Damian Stephens 2018 (above)                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                       2020 (below)

photography © Damian Stephens 2018 (above)

2020 (below)

 
 
VIVID FESTIVAL (Sydney 2018) I photography © Kathy Lauu

VIVID FESTIVAL (Sydney 2018) I photography © Kathy Lauu

 
 

FOR CURIOUS EYES ONLY (Melbourne 2017)