Handsfree
installation by Liis Lillo

bcp#16

 

The long sleeves are an extension of the body in the Peking Opera. The actors play with extremely long sleeves of their dresses to express different emotions. It is a way that complements the speech and song. The colors indicate the character's personality.

In Shanghai we often see women who wear fanciful false sleeves: these are protective fabric strung over the sleeves in the activities of everyday life. A habit from the 50's, when women began to work in factories. With these storage sleeves we understand they are in a work situation. In market there are all sorts of models of false sleeves with different designs. The color palette is very wide.

Shanghai is a cosmopolitan and eclectic. All styles coexist: traditional Chinese dwellings, neoclassical, Art Deco or modern Western constructions, buildings and futuristic skyscrapers. It is a volatile mixture of past and present. In traditional Chinese architecture the columns have neither bases nor capitals, but today we can see decorative columns with Corinthian capitals everywhere in Shanghai.

Urban planning, dress codes and lifestyles are rapidly changing.

I assembled the false sleeves that I found and I built columns for the bazaar.


Liis Lillo

Shanghai, april 22, 2012