EXCERPTS OF CONVERSATIONS HAD
(on) THE CARCASS (and) THE CLOTH
M : you use the word “carcasses” to describe the dismantled works, that implies a death occurred.
Y : only in versions
M : why did you live with them for so long?
Y : the attachment persisted
(on) THE MUNDANE (as) STAGE
M : why is the mundane experience necessary? if it is art why not place it only in places it is viewed upon as art?
Y : gallery proves performance, existence proves art. I am interested in its existence, if the dress can’t survive the mundane - if it can’t align the body during the most significant and insignificant acts alike - there’s something wrong
M : does the work change when it’s seen by someone buying milk versus someone looking at art?
Y : I mean, they are both looking at the same thing
(on) THE RETURNING PLAYER
M : you reference yourself as returning player, what are the stakes?
Y : resilience, repetition, failure, again, again, again. It’s knowledge of the previous.
(conversations) ON THE SACRED ABSENCE
M : you reference “withholding of the flesh” is your work an act of disappearance?
Y : no, disappearance implies loss of power; withholding is a claim to it. By obscuring the body, I remove it from the market. It cannot be traded if it is not seen. That is the only way it remains safe, I intent to keep it safe.
M : you mentioned the “burden of the feminine” does the weight of the garments represent the burden?
Y : it’s not intended in such a physical way, the burden refers to societies expectation of the feminine. It expects softness, to be light, accessible, and easily consumed, whereas the truth of the feminine experience is very violent, unjust and painful. My work in turn is heavy, structural. It is an architectural resistance to those imposed expectations.
(on) THE POLITICS (of) OCCUPYING SPACE
M : your work seems to prioritise “more spaces to occupy” is your work an expansion or shield?
Y : it is both, by taking on more roles, more control - I occupy more space, not just physically what the dress takes up. When you occupy more space, you no longer have to negotiate your presence with others. You simply are.
(THE) book (as) GRAVE
M : if the dresses no longer exist, and only the book remains, is the work ow 2D or 3D?
Y : the work is now memory. The book is just weight, any form of being able to witness it is, photographs, films, sketches, so on. I have an added account of experience, I remember how they felt when I wore them - the resistance of fabric and the weight of fabric. I don’t need the physical object to hold its experience.
M : will you do the same to all works including future works?
Y : no, only sometimes. That was a past practice, I was speaking from distance. I am not against the survival of physical work.
(on) THE ILLUSION OF FUNCTION
M : sometimes you refer to them as “dresses” but you also call them other things like “structures” are they actually clothes?
Y : structures don’t need a body to occupy them, they exist without. Clothing, “dresses” do, they exist with, so both, without body it is structure.
(the) VELOCITY (of) CHANGE
M : you described wearing a garment made weeks before as “inhabiting a regressed version of myself” Does your work move faster than your body?
Y : the work is a mirror to interior states, and my interiority is constantly changing. I can only remain in a place for a measured amount of time. Once I have left, changed, other, the alignment to dress is broken. That’s why I say they don’t feel like me after a while and I make a new one.
(the) LABOUR (of) HANDS
M : is technical mastery a byproduct or the point?
Y : total command requires total labour, so yes, it is a byproduct of necessity.
(the) ETHICS OF (the) UNKNOWN
M : if you don’t sketch, meaning you don’t know what you are trying to achieve or at least what it is suppose to look like, how do you know when the piece is finished?
Y : I know when expulsion is over. There is a moment It is satisfied and in that moment I stop. Satisfaction is rare.
M : and if it’s wrong?
Y : there is no “wrong” who would even be judge of that but the maker?
M : the audience?
Y : if you say so