(wear if you dare) by alexandra avramova from china

my work is deeply inspired and influenced by ito jakuchu’s masterpiece “birds and animals in the flower garden”.

through the garments I created, I aimed to reflect the vibrant colors and magical atmosphere of “birds and animals in the flower garden” in my own unique way. ito jakuchu was known as a “fantastic artist” and in this particular work he mixed real animals with imaginary ones. along with the wearable garments, I have created whimsical necklaces and head/hand pieces, which resemble the shapes of some animals in the ito jakuchu’s screens, especially the wings, horns, ears. my accessories are made of hand-printed acrylic resin and shine in the sun just like wet flowers shine in a garden, thus resembling the vibrant colors of the magical screens that were also made from hard and shiny mosaic material.

I silk-screen printed by hand the textile I used with my own prints of unusual animals, flowers and little faces.

the over-sized jacket is made of numerous laser-cut felt heads and was inspired by the white elephant in the mural. using the mosaic technique, ito jakuchu achieved deepness of the image by combining many little square tiles. this gave me the idea to stitch many little heads together so that they form a 3 dimensional effect on the jacket.

in my collection I mixed imaginary animals with little 3d human heads and printed faces. by adding little people to the mix of animals I tried to say: are we humans also sometimes imaginary? although we are real, there is a big part of us that is fantastical! ready-to-wear if you dare.