I am considering the interrelationship between the body, garments and water, a fluid imprint on daily life. The entangled relationship between human and non-human entities, such as bodies of water.

I am considering the imprint of water on material, and the materiality of things. Our bodies carry 70 percent water, the earth surface is mostly covered in bodies of water, water as system of transport, and an element fundamental in sustaining life and production processes, A system of fragility and an entity of great force. 

‍

When I reflect on the cloth of the garments that we wear, metaphorically unravelling it back to threads and fibres, imagining the fragmented traces of the production process of textile, imprinted in its transformative story.  How does the body leave traces on the cloth of our garments, and its industry on our environment?  Our livelihood is entangled with fragile water ecosystems. Does cloth contain traces of the memory of water that formed its fibres and structural process? 

‍

I am fascinated by the physicality of water, its weight, the fluidity of water as a structure, the force of a wave as it is propelled to the shore or broken against rocks. I am thinking of water as fluid bodies, holding stories in its depths. In contrast, water as an ominous hard surface if you jump into it from a great height when it becomes dangerously solid, or skipping rocks that bounce off its surface, temporarily impenetrable. 

‍

Water is as a life force, containing millions of microorganisms, a breathing living entity that is in constant state of change. I am reflecting on the relationship between water and production of cloth and garments, ecosystems, and structural systems, weaving together in trajectories across bodies of water in the constant intercontinental flow of materials to fabricate suitable second skins for our bodies, and ultimately, thought the heat and humidity of our bodies, how this re-shapes cloth to adapt the form of individuals. I am curious on how to depict this entangled state of water and fiber, and its pathways.

I am visualizing water as a wounded body bearing the weight of consumerist culture, slowly suffocated and drained by pollution and chemical damaged, by micro-fibers and plastics. Water is also a politically and economically charged entity, in contrast as a life force.

Watery materiality is not a single thing, but has multiple manifestations.

‍