Shapeshifty is an artwork by Amy Suo Wu created in collaboration with Sami Hammana, Karen Huang, Sarafina Paulina Bonita, and myself. It consists of a garment in two modalities, each including a scarf,

hat with veil, and tags.

The work, an "embodied publication," is a meditation on the politics of visibility and invisibility, transparency and opacity, translation and the refusal to translate

 

In this project for me, code switching is explored by this idea of performing it within your own culture.

It is the feeling of being somewhat an outsider of your own culture, where code switching feels inevitable. As if code- switching is needed to be seen by the other.

My contribution to this garment is the creation of a scarf that is used as a tool for supporting you in difficult times/situations. And difficult times in this case I see as this need for code switching in order to be seen.

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Production scarf by : Sandim Mendes, Amy Suo Wu and Hanna Franke

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Shown at: To be Like Water, TENT Rotterdam, 2021

Photography by: Aad Hoogendorn

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