ORLANDO
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28.1. – 12.2.2023 Solo Exhibition
Art Foundation Saxony-Anhalt

Manon Bursian

“Queer and emancipated, stylish and provocative -
that is Orlando from the eponymous novel by Virginia Woolf.

In her renowned book, the British author tells an extraordinary story that begins in Elizabethan England and sketches a biography marked by the complexity between centuries, cultures and genders as well as personal intellectual and emotional development. Inspired by this Jahrhundertroman, the award-winning fashion and textile designers Susanne Ostwald and Magdalena Sophie Orland have designed an innovative couture collection, which was created as part of a working grant from the Saxony-Anhalt Art Foundation and was on show as a solo exhibition in its gallery spaces from 28 January to 12 February 2023.

The clothing style of the time and the visual designs of Sally Potter’s film Orlando starring Tilda Swinton were particularly influential for their textile designs. The Orlando collection refers to the interplay between fashion and textile design, traditional craftsmanship and future-oriented technologies.

The delicate, handcrafted reinterpretations of Elizabethan lace by textile designer Orland were translated into wearable 3-D objects and complemented by corresponding couture designs by fashion designer Ostwald.

Since these innovative nanomaterials cannot be directly translated into silhouettes for the human body using conventional cutting and processing techniques, the two designers had to develop alternative construction techniques.

As with Orlando, tradition and history enter into a symbiosis in this collection. Handmade lace forms the basic material of the collection alongside silk organza, velvet and light cotton and viscose fabrics.

The individual cuts were designed traditionally and then transferred to 3D templates and frames onto which the garments were applied by stretching the lines horizontally and vertically and manually setting the connection points.

Experimenting with fabrics and materials is Ostwald and Orland's trademark. Since 2021, the fashion and textile designers, who were recently awarded the Carl and Anneliese Goerdeler Foundation Prize at the renowned GRASSI MESSE, have been exploring the potential of traditional craftsmanship in relation to forward-looking technologies and advancing digitalisation under the label OODD Studios. They work with a specially developed contemporary lace that is handmade from both conventional and unconventional materials such as vinyl, silk or liquid acrylic.

In the exhibition, 14 ensembles from the couture collection were shown on mannequins, and completed by examples from the development process with excerpts from sketchbooks, sketches and textile swatches.

In addition, three photo series were presented in which the collection is worn and staged on both male and female models.

The protagonists of the novel were reinterpreted and digitally transferred into large-scale Renaissance paintings in which they are wearing designs from the Orlando Couture collection.

The exhibition also featured other groups of works by OODD Studios. On display were the experimental textile objects LANDMARK, the delicate wall hangings TAPISSERIE NOUVEAU and the modular collar system OODD COLLIER.”

©Matthias Ritzmann für die Kunststiftung Sachsen-Anhalt: