‘The Body Adorned’ was an exhibition at the Horniman Museum that considered how the movement of people, objects, and ideas influenced London dress in the past and explored body adornment in the city of London in 2012. The installation represents an anthropology of dress in London that sits at the heart of the exhibition.

The brief for the installation we created was to immersive the visitor in an environment that reflected on how we navigate London; how we choose what we wear and how we respond to other people. To create this work we filmed a series of street portraits across 4 contrasting areas of London; the “city square mile” of the city, Chelsea High Street, Brick Lane Market, and Peckham High Street. In each area, we stopped and asked a series of people what they were wearing and why they dress the way they did.

We edited these street portraits of each area into a series of films that we placed online. We then invited everyone featured in these films to watch all the other portraits and give their impressions of the people they saw in their own and other areas. These commentary recordings were then edited in dialog with the subject’s statements to reveal the hidden judgments we make of each other through our dress in the city.

The films and audio were designed to be experienced in surround in the installation, creating an immersive work that brings to life an internal dialogue we might experience as we navigate the streets of any city.

CREDITS:

Press:

TIME OUT, UK 
CULTURE 24