Kuan Zhu

Kuan is a multi-disciplinary design creator in a variety of fields including fashion design and textiles design, visualising emotional and expressions through iterative body of work.

He is interested in how to visualize the emotional expression to build a connection with fabrics, silhouettes, and the body.  He explored fashion and textiles’ fusion and boundaries with the relationship between art and design. He is visualising inspiration by range of design techniques and processes, showing the diversity of the design process and concept.

He is focusing on the expression of emotions and using the body of work to explore it, regardless of gender-specific. In his work, he is trying to express personal emotions by textiles design which is not monolithic, but diverse, as gender is fluid, textiles design can break the specific gender.

David Wojnarowicz said 'Don't ever give up beauty. We're fighting so that we can have things like this, so that we can have beauty again.'

The undercurrentof emotions are conveyed using the hermaphrodite flower as a medium. To expressed through transcription, deconstruction. To explore the fusion of structure and tactile. Trying to materialize fluid and vulnerable with fragments of hermaphrodite flowers.

This project explores the relationship between tangible and intangible, material and immaterial. The undercurrents of emotion are conveyed and expressed through transcription, deconstruction, around sensation, using the hermaphrodite flower as a medium.

I continue my interpretation of gender fluidity, personal emotional projection and the questioning of masculinity. Responding to Yves' words To feel the soul without explanation, without vocabulary, and to represent that feeling. I try to portray the core of gender fluidity with a metaphorical capture of emotion. I am trying to use the hermaphrodite flower as a metaphor to construct and deconstruct the material and print.

I have been influenced by the work of artists such as Derek Jarman, John Dugdale and Robert Mapplethorpe. This has influenced my use of materials for this project and I have experimented with different soft and hard materials to express the concept of gender fluidity and hidden emotions. I see a diversity of emotions in the way they interpret floral work. I try to express undercurrent of latent emotions.