Liisa Kanemägi

My thesis asks us to consider our relationship with matter – the matter around and within us, while questioning their boundaries – focusing on clothing and fashion. I am contemplating the difference between material and abstract values, while considering change and deterioration as means to find more meaningful connection with materia.

The value systems concerning matter are highly contextual, and yet seem self-evident at times. Therefore, the research is conducted through a philosophical approach applied to writing, reading other writers’ works, contemplating, journaling, knitting, wearing, and sweating. As well as materialising oneself in knitwear, sweat is also used to think about the meanings behind clean and dirty. I want to demonstrate the importance of seeing underneath the surface of clothes by using water soluble thread, unravelling, and wearmarks as ways of putting time and fade into knitwear, while also considering how accepted or unaccepted this may be.