New Life Dressing 1/ The Traveller

New Life Dressing is a three-part series in which Siv Støldal explores the role clothing plays during our ever-changing lives and the different journeys we embark upon. Each project within the series has developed from intimate interviews conducted by Støldal with carefully selected individuals.

Throughout our lifetime, we evolve and communicate in many ways, taking on different identities and gradually becoming the sum of our past expressions, although many of these can ultimately be hidden from view. The series sees Støldal specifically investigating the connections and meanings clothing can convey as part of physical, spiritual and emotional life changes.

New Life Dressing 1/ The Traveller reinterprets clothing within the context of physical changes of location; packing for a hitherto unexplored place and self, to project oneself into a new future. This was based on an interview with Mimi, who Støldal initially met at a Bergen refugee centre. Mimi had spent 11 years in transit, constantly adapting to different places. Støldal discovered that Mimi was very interested in clothing. Her choices of attire during her journey as a refugee - and the ways these choices enhanced her identity and ability to adapt to new terrains - resonated with Støldal. For example, during Mimi’s desert-crossing travels, she wore a glamorous silver dress, rather than a seemingly-practical multi-pocketed dark-coloured dress. Why? Mimi had realised silver fabric would show less dirt and dust than a darker colour, and she was less likely to be mistaken for a soldier, which could be dangerous.

In light of these revelations, Støldal questioned which kinds of clothing define and propel us towards a new life in an unknown destination? She then began to produce a series of garments and textiles that reflected hers and Mimi’s stories being linked together. She brought to this process contrasting and comparable references from both of their stories and everyday experiences. The result was a visual summary of the two of them.

Støldal’s deep interest in men’s tailoring heightens her interest in ‘codes’ built into a garment through volume, fabric, pockets and seams. This line of enquiry is continued within The Traveller collection, featuring unusual contradictions and layered effects. She researched and utilized healing, sustainable and natural tech fibres, containing cellulose, zinc and seaweed. These are regenerative to skin, eco-friendly and biodegradable. At the collection’s heart are oversized logo sweatshirts, subverting and distorting designer branding by massively enlarging reflective logos. Referencing Mimi’s arduous desert-journey, red, yellow and white desert sand - and grey sand from the Smivågen beach on Tyssøy, Norway - is dried upon thick gloopy ink, for a tactile texture. The sweatshirt creates a link between different lives and destinies. The ink entraps the sand, but it gradually drizzles off on its new path when worn by someone else. Sand also coats hiking footwear and steel cap shoes. Felting and reflective camouflage-inspired prints equally play with surface and perceptions of hi and lo-visibility. Silver lame adorned with reflective prints discloses further shine-on-shine contrasts American football shirts are reimagined in transparent nets and tapestry-style knotted rope fleece. Soft and silky knitted Kevlar pieces, made from bulletproof karbon fibers, knitted in Cardigan Stitch, create a garment almost too heavy to lift: the familiar meets the extreme.

‘‘I like to create clothes that enhance an understanding of other peoples’ stories and past experiences. By wearing a piece of another person's history, perhaps a wider and deeper understanding can come about? Like you are in someone else's shoes, so you could also be a bit in someone else's sweatshirt, taking a piece of their journey with you. Their story is part of your past, too, and a bridge is formed between you.’’
Siv Støldal, 2023

Collaborators:
The Traveller has welcomed creative interaction from selected collaborators, whose collective input altered the trajectory of the project in various exciting ways.

Scott Wilson
The London-based jewellery designer created amulette-like lucky charms and necklace pieces with eclectic materials ranging from healing crystals, rocks, driftwood, rope, porcelain, glass and silver.
http://www.scottwilsonlondon.com/

Kim Jakobsen To
The London-based, Norwegian/Vietnamese photographer captured the collection in the rural Norwegian setting at Tyssøy, the island Siv grew up on and is currently living. The images further reinforce Jakobsen’s ongoing interest in identity, subcultures, and the split between everyday utilitarian lives and utopian dreams.
https://kimjakobsento.com/

Morteza Vaseghi
The graphic designer Morteza Vaseghi has created the graphic work and prints for this collection: distorted camo motifs.
https://mortezavaseghi.com/

Merete Rein and Jan Kåre Myklebust
All glass and porcelain within the collection was made in collaboration with the glass blower Merete Rein, and the ceramist Jan Kåre Myklebust.
https://www.mereterein.no/
https://www.jankare.no/

Thank you to models Mouhcine El Khamlichi and Rashid Omar Said for their enthusiasm and creative involvement in the shoot and casting.

Words: James Anderson
https://jamesanderson.online/

This project was exhibited at Norske Kunsthåndverkere Exhibition Programme 2023 with the title Time will tell - she already knows, at Hordaland Kunstsenter, Bergen, Norway.
Dates: 01.09- 15.11 2023.
Curated by Daniela Ramos Arias and Mathijs van Geest.
Dates: 01.09- 15.11 2023.