PROJECT DESCRIPTION:

The theme explored in this project is fashion as a frustrating constraint and the idea of false empowerment, with an emphasis on second skin/fashion as a protective physical and psychological shell. The artifact itself -hand wraps, worn underneath boxing gloves to protect knuckles and thumb joint - is uncomfortably tight and embodies various notions that pertain to both fashion and empowerment, including frustration, brutality, physicality, force and domination.

Focusing on fashion's inevitable ties with ideas of capitalism, over-consumption and waste, the output of this artifact illustrates the triumph of the object in a consumer society; a string of LEDs emits an amber glow after a few punches have been thrown by the user. Strategically placed over the knuckles, the reddish glow is also a symbol of the blood on our hands that comes as a result of afore-mentioned ideas or over-consumption, and also ties into the notion of brutality that is the essence of such an artifact.