Refashioning: Kimono Refashioned
Aileen Pan
Kimono Refashioned was an exhibition at the Asian Art Museum of San Francisco. It is a collection of work from 1980s Japanese avant-garde designers deconstructs traditional Japanese clothing, the Kimono. The exhibition reveals the materials, forms, techniques, and decorative motifs that inspired designers for more than 150 years. After the exhibition tours, the museum provides artistic production for kids at the Experimental Learning Center. However, it closed due to the pandemic.
Refashioning: Kimono Refashioned, an educational program for kids, aims to relieve the pressure from the pandemic on the museum by designing interactive fashion-related products for kids to continue their education journey at home. The project centers around a kit to get kids in touch with knowledge on Japanese textiles. Kids create their own textile design with the highlighted motifs and sample patterns provided in the kit. A pattern generator on both the web and a kiosk in the museum helps kids with their final artistic production. Kids can use the generator to create and print their designs on products, including T-shirts, tote bags, and mugs.
The goal of this project is to help kids to learn and to create innovative work with the knowledge they learn from the exhibition. The tactile-making process helps kids to be creative and to explore art knowledge. It supports museum's mission of art education as they adapt to the pandemic crisis, and it demonstrates a way for museums to interact with their audiences and introduce kids to fashion. |