Studio Orta

The group exhibition ‘Shelter / Survival - alternative homes for fantastic lives’, held at the Hiroshima City Museum of Contemporary Art, explores concepts of shelter in art and design, alternative homes and sites in creative interpretations of survival. As tools for surviving a wide-range of potential perils, the exhibits transcend genre in their quest to expand the creative potential of art. Body Architecture and Refuge Wear, the work of Lucy Orta, appears particularly significant within the context of this ‘global’ need to find new and alternative solutions for emerging social issues which cross all boundaries and which connect with the aims and objectives of contemporary artists working with different media. Orta’s work blurs the practices of architecture and fashion: a dress to live in and a house to dress. The inhabitants are protected from the world in a minimum space for reflection and meditation; they become enveloped in a safe and protected space, a four-dimensional universe, multifunctional and mobile. The artist first developed the Refuge Wear series throughout the 1990s at a time of economic decline provoked by the conflicts in Iraq, the Balkans and Rwanda, and the plight of the millions of refugees fleeing their homes. Orta also spent several years working with refugee and homeless communities, developing projects to communicate their issues to a wider public. This work reflects the base of Professor Orta’s research at the University of the Arts London, as newly appointed Professor of Art, Fashion and the Environment at London College of Fashion. Her transversal approach to the artistic practice is a way of calling into question fashion, design, architecture, theatre, urban planning and visual arts. A shared territory for ethics and aesthetics with a strong role played by the emerging social themes of our times.