Elsewear | Megan Blythe Stewart
Elsewear, Megan Blythe Stewart (Vancouver, BC)
August 2016. Wardrobe installation, performance, story archive.
Elsewear takes the museum’s collection of vintage thrift as the starting point for a series of interactions based on clothing and memory. Over 25 different outfits were taken from Elsewhere’s wardrobe to be worn by Stewart throughout the duration of her residency. These items of clothing were washed, mended, ironed, worn, and documented on a daily basis.
The outfits sparked conversations and interviews with fellow residents, museum staff, visitors, and community members about clothes influencing identity and mediating our encounters with the rest of the world.
Selections from these conversations are compiled within the “Elsewear Style Museum:” a monogrammed suitcase that serves as a growing archive of clothing memories and a collaborative, multi-perspectival guidebook on style. On the third floor, the selected outfits hang on display. Suspended from the ceiling, they form a forest of garments that are dense with the memories of past wearers-the artist included.
While clothing gathers memory and meaning, clothing stories can be inscrutable, known only to their wearer. Elsewear brings these stories to light.
Process:
