“Hi, Anxious Me!”
Concept |
As a timid person who often feels a bit more anxiety than others, I’d observe my surroundings and other human beings quietly. I didn’t try to speak up until I entered my first fashion class three years ago. In the process of communicating through design, colors and materials became my pure voice. I began to realize how the realities of the fashion industry conspire to challenge the purity of my own fashion ideals. I noticed the pursuit of profit, success, and beauty at the expense of clean water, air, and fundamental human rights. I feared the profit-oriented relationships that prevail. At the crossroads of my ideals and the reality of the fashion industry, my love for fashion coexists with uncertainty and fear. Yet as my anxiety returns, I don’t want to ignore the feelings tangled up inside me. My anxiety opens a window that I peer through to recognize myself. Instead of fleeing away, I would like to say, “Hi, anxious me! I accept and embrace you!”
Bio |
Shaoyi Jiang, was born in Suzhou, China. In 2018, Jiang was awarded with both the Ungaro Scholarship and Raymond Hudd Millinery Award. She participated in SAIC fashion exhibitions in 2018 and 2017, as well as SAIC Art Bash in 2016. Recently, she interned for Department of Curiosities, Morúa, and Production Mode. Jiang considers fashion to be a medium for artists to express their innermost ideas. With a long-term Chinese painting background, she often is inspired by Asian aesthetics. She integrates her understanding of the nexus of traditional and contemporary cultures into her fashion design practice. Jiang admires the authenticity of handcrafts in fabrics and the engineering so crucial in pattern-making. Through her art-making process, she wants to express her own curiosity about the fashion industry, concerns about the environment, and uncertainties as a contemporary artist and designer.