The installation of a rotating dress visualizes Alydia Wyever and Ryan Oduber's search for identity and connection. The three overlapping knitted bell skirts include multiple references to Aruba, where the artists come from. The hem of each skirt is finished with a plaited strip of raffia and banana silk, in which meaningful objects are incorporated.
The Textielmuseum commisioned Alydia Wever and Ryan Oduber to develop an installation of a rotating dress, which visualizes their search for identity and connection. The three overlapping knitted bell skirts include multiple references to Aruba, where the artists come from. The hem of each skirt is finished with a plaited strip of raffia and banana silk, in which meaningful objects are incorporated: silver spoons from Douwe Egberts refer to history of slavery, bottles of seawater represent the boat crossing, while small copper boxers symbolize the baggage that the artists carry with them. The dress was made partly on the knitting machine and partly on the plaiting machine. Both the knitted motifs and the cords connecting the skirts are derived from the hammocks that are so characteristic of the Caribbean, as a symbol of the network of genes that the people there carry with them. The installation was shown in the TextielMuseum from June to October 2023 in the exhibition Textile now - each thread tells a story.
'Textile now - each thread tells a story', TextielMuseum, Tilburg, 10 June - 1 October 2023
