Aware: Art Fashion Identity exhibition at London's Royal Academy of Arts
2 December 2010 – 30 January 2011
The exhibition examines how artists and designers use clothing as a mechanism to communicate and reveal elements of our identity. The exhibition includes work by 30 leading international practitioners and is divided into four sections: Storytelling, Building, Belonging and Confronting and Performance.
Above image: Sharif Waked (Confronting and Performance)
Chic Point, 2003
Chic Point, 2003
In much of his work the Palestinian artist Sharif Waked confronts the difficulties faced by his people and the complexities of the political situation in the Middle East. In these video works, clothes designed to reveal areas of flesh
are seen alongside images of Palestinian men being subjected to body searches at Israeli checkpoints. Playing on the glamour of the catwalk, Waked uses the sense of identity and dignity associated with clothing to make a powerful political comment about its removal.
