New York: Dresscode – You are what you wear!

Press Release by Heidi Lunabba

Dresscode – You are what you wear!

A community based art project by:
art duo Tärähtäneet ämmät / Nutty Tarts (FI) and artist Heidi Lunabba (FI)
New York City, USA 2013 and Helsinki, Finland 2012

Part of “Fashion Interactions” -exhibition
November 11 – December 11, 2013

Arnold and Sheila Aronson Galleries
Parsons The New School for Design
66 Fifth Avenue at 13th Street
New York, USA

Dresscode is a community based art project that deals with the questions of style and taste as an indicator of social class. It raises the questions how we choose our clothes, what kind of an image we want to build of ourselves and how does these intentions correlate with our socio economical status.

“We want to be part of a certain community or different communities and indicate our “membership” by our clothing without loosing our personality and individuality. Dresscode reveals that judgments of taste are related to social position.” says artist Katriina Haikala, Nutty Tarts.

Dresscode-project has been executed once before in Helsinki, Finland in year 2012, and it was exhibited in Amos Anderson art museum. The NYC -edition of the project was photographed in three different locations in New York City: 1. Madison avenue, Manhattan, 2. 161th street, Bronx and 3. Greenpoint, Brooklyn, artists Tärähtäneet ämmät / Nutty Tarts and Heidi Lunabba interviewed and photographed almost 200 new yorkers. Three models were asked to model for the photographs that are now exhibited in the gallery of Parsons The New School.

“Usually we don’t like to talk about social classes though we have a good eye on knowing the differences between the styles of different social classes. We categorize people unconsciously really quickly by the way people are dressed, and that’s why taste as an indicator of social class is such an interesting topic for an art project!” says artist Heidi Lunabba.