OVERCOAT x Rirkrit Tiravanija
In 2022, Ryuhei Oomaru of OVERCOAT and artist Rirkrit Tiravanija have COME TOGETHER to create wearable works of art with the purpose of giving new life to secondhand clothing. The artwork was presented during NY Fashion Week in September and exhibited at Okayama Art Sumitt 2022 in November.
By juxtaposing signature OVERCOAT tailored pieces with items supplied by the Or Foundation, for which Tiravanija has been a supporter, Oomaru reshaped twelve garments, which are then tagged by Tiravanija with such messages as, “FEAR EATS THE SOUL”, “FREEDOM CANNOT BE SIMULATED, “NO MORE REALITY, and “TOMORROW IS ANOTHER DAY” before being contorted, shredded and sliced, until scrap and source become indistinguishable.
The resulting one-of-a-kind pieces are at the crossroads of conversation; the discarded clothes are in an organic dialogue with the custom-made awning-inspired creations of OVERCOAT. Their discourse is made tangible by the unique phrases individually screen-printed upon each garment at Tiravanija’s studio.
Two artists. Two garments. The source material is duo but the result is singular, minds meeting to make one. Coming together.
By juxtaposing signature OVERCOAT tailored pieces with items supplied by the Or Foundation, for which Tiravanija has been a supporter, Oomaru reshaped twelve garments, which are then tagged by Tiravanija with such messages as, “FEAR EATS THE SOUL”, “FREEDOM CANNOT BE SIMULATED, “NO MORE REALITY, and “TOMORROW IS ANOTHER DAY” before being contorted, shredded and sliced, until scrap and source become indistinguishable.
The resulting one-of-a-kind pieces are at the crossroads of conversation; the discarded clothes are in an organic dialogue with the custom-made awning-inspired creations of OVERCOAT. Their discourse is made tangible by the unique phrases individually screen-printed upon each garment at Tiravanija’s studio.
Two artists. Two garments. The source material is duo but the result is singular, minds meeting to make one. Coming together.
Rirkrit Tiravanija
Born in 1961 in Buenos Aires, Argentina the Thai artist Rirkrit Tiravanija is widely recognized as one of the most influential artists of his generation. His work defies media-based description, as his practice combines traditional object making, public and private performances, teaching, and other forms of public service and social action. Winner of the 2005 Hugo Boss Prize awarded by the Guggenheim Museum, Tiravanija was also awarded the Benesse by the Naoshima Contemporary Art Museum in Japan and the Smithsonian American Art Museum's Lucelia Artist Award.
He has had exhibitions at the Museum of Modern Art in New York, the Guggenheim Museum of New York, the Reina Sofia Museum in Madrid, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Hirschhorn Smithsonian, Glenstone Museum, Luma Foundation in Arles and at the Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen in Rotterdam that then was presented in Paris and London. Tiravanija is on the faculty of the School of the Arts at Columbia University, and is a founding member and curator of Utopia Station, a collective project of artists, art historians and curators. Tiravanija also helped establish an educational-ecological project known as the land foundation, located in Chiang Mai, Thailand.
He has had exhibitions at the Museum of Modern Art in New York, the Guggenheim Museum of New York, the Reina Sofia Museum in Madrid, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Hirschhorn Smithsonian, Glenstone Museum, Luma Foundation in Arles and at the Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen in Rotterdam that then was presented in Paris and London. Tiravanija is on the faculty of the School of the Arts at Columbia University, and is a founding member and curator of Utopia Station, a collective project of artists, art historians and curators. Tiravanija also helped establish an educational-ecological project known as the land foundation, located in Chiang Mai, Thailand.
The Or Foundation
The Or Foundation is a US and Ghana- based not-for-profit organization that has been working between two countries at the intersection of environmental justice, education and fashion development since 2011. The Or Foundation has brought global awareness to fashion’s waste crisis through extensive research and action around the secondhand clothing trade as it manifests in Accra, Ghana, home to the largest secondhand clothing market in the world.https://theor.org/