BioCostume reflections: towards wearing kin

Description

My presentation focuses on the costume practice and thinking that underpins my contribution to the theatre performance Muohtadivggažat (The sound of snow). This artistic practice informs my ongoing doctoral research, which explores how biobased colourants and biofabricated matter can afford aesthetic qualities to an artistic work, as well as induce meaning and value beyond the scope of the live performative event. Muohtadivggažat (The sound of snow), by Ferske Scener and The Sámi National Theatre Beaivváš, is a story of people and survival, of land and homeland. Its narrative centres on three generations of Skolt Sámi and weaves fictional characters together with real events that have unfolded over the past 80 years, within and across the landscape where Norway, Finland and Russia converge. As costume designer I wanted to bring my personal connection with homeland(s) into this performance context. By concentrating on two places that hold significance for me, specifically my childhood home in northern Norway/Sápmi and my current home in southern Finland, I explored ways of engaging with place-specific living organisms to generate costume colours that, through their material and immaterial dimensions, embody personal narrative and interspecies relations. Here I present selected research material that emerged through this process and discuss the current stage of theorizing based on this practice.

Period	9 Jun 2022
Event title	Costume and Research in Finland: National-level Research Seminar on Costume Design and Related Fields
Event type	Seminar
Location	Espoo, FinlandShow on map
Degree of Recognition	National