- Description of the project
How has your identity shifted recently? Shifting in a physical residence sometimes impacts the way you see yourself and your surroundings. Most of you moved from a different country to this city. How has your identity formed? How is your identity forming or shifting now? How would you define identity? With Bridge 2, you will conduct an interview with your partner about this experience of shifting in identity and make a gift for each other.
For the studio component of Bridge 2, you will create a wearable gift that accompanies your partner during her/his/their shift or transition in identity. Could you make something that celebrates one’s identity shift? Or would you like to make something that conceals or protects that shift? What could your partner wear to symbolize, hide, reveal, or help this transition?
- Excerpt from your interview
When Rainie, my partner, was in middle school, some of her classmates made fun of her. “Because of my body shape.” she explained. “And also I had no courage to take off my glasses, I wore them all the time.” But after entering high school she made a big change on herself. “I took off my glasses and started wearing contact lenses to be confident.” she said. “I also started doing urban dance, and that helped me gain even more confidence.”
- Reflection
Through the interview, I knew that Rainie has experienced the process from lacking to being confident. Plus, leaving her hometown and living in a new environment, NYC, needs even more confidence. But gaining confidence is not easy, since there are many things in the outside world that are harsh, aggressive and cold. Therefore, as a gift I wanted to give her a mental–even physical–companionship and support that provides her with familiarity, comfort and warmth. These are necessary while growing and being stronger to face the harsh world, because people who rest and are supported can go further, both mentally and physically.
Rainie really loves her dog. During the interview, she showed me the video of her dog, shot in her home in Chengdu, interacting with her, and said she missed the dog a lot. As a result, I decided to make the support and companion look and feel like her dog. I wove the dog doll with brown unwoven fabric, and filled it with cloth. On the doll’s backside, I sewed another soft and fur-like brown fabric on, since it is similar to the texture and color of the fur of Rainie’s dog. Also, I sewed and glued a hair clip on its backside, so Rainie can attach the dog doll on wherever she wants, hair, clothing, bags, caps, socks, etc. When she is wearing the doll, its fluffy and furry backside, close to her body or even skin, will give her the sense of touching and petting her dog, as well as the warmth the dog always provided her with. Last but not least, the doll looks like the blur outline of a dog instead of an exact and clear appearance of one. That is because in the video Rainie showed me, her dog was moving excitedly and continuously, which made its appearance, nose and mouth hard to be captured. But I could still see its big eyes and fluffy body shape .
One of the challenges for this project was to find the right fabric. In order to create both the color and the softness of Rainie’s dog, I went to Garment District, and visited several fabric shops. After an afternoon I finally found a kind of ribbon having the features I wanted. So the fluffy backside of the doll was actually composed by ribbon cut and sewed together. The other challenge was how to sew a doll that expresses both the unclear and furry feeling. Without many sewing experience and knowledge, before I made this doll successfully, I had been trying deferent ways to sew and ending up creating a shape I was not satisfied with for more than four times.
The dog’s video:
