In 1845 Savitri leaves Calcutta for Trinidad. She boards the Fath Al Razack, and is ordered to change into the stockings, woolen trousers, shoes and petticoat provided. In 2010 Jimmy leaves Paris with a broken heart and four suitcases of couture.
WARDROBES is a longer story of desire, about living in between the feeling that nowhere is home and the tantalizing possibility that everywhere might be home.
WARDROBES began life at the New York Fashion Institute of Technology (FIT) in 2011 as a collection of four precious metal and textile objects that considered how traumatic historical acts shape the most tender parts of our intimate lives. A preview presentation of the four WARDROBES pieces (Ohrni, Cutlass, Scrubs and Rum and Roti) was presented at FIT on March 23, 2011.
The objects trace inheritances of indentureship – the system that brought Indians to the Caribbean as replacement slave labour to work sugarcane plantations. Four subsequent "art happenings," each named after one of the fashion objects) develop explorations of labour, desire and displacement.
