Art Design
#fashion #insects #textiles
Artist Aki Inomata Provides Bagworms with Snippets of High Fashion to Create Matching Cocoons
Commenting on female consumer culture in Japan, artist Aki Inomata decided to dress female bagworms in extravagant attire, handing clippings of women’s dresses to the insects in order to transform them into protective cases. In nature, male bagworms shed these cases when they become moths. Females however, remain in these cases their entire lives, waiting patiently for the attention of a male. Reminded of the similarities to her own gender performance in Japan, Inomata exhibited her work with female bagworms at a department store that sells women’s clothing, her own commentary on what lengths women must still go to in order to be aesthetically accepted by society.
This is not the only time Inomata has worked with bugs or animals to alter their interpretation of the world. From 2009-2016 she crafted shells for hermit crabs based on differently global cities, and in 2009 she took French lessons with a parakeet. Inomata is represented by Maho Kubota Gallery in Tokyo and you can see more of her work on her website.
#fashion #insects #textiles
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