'Echoes' is a poetic photo series of dolls/installations made from discarded and/or used clothing. It is a statement about the amount of life and stories that are still stuck in garments when we throw them away. Together with photographer Aaron Lapeirre, we bring these stories and souls back to life in this series. It is an attempt to capture the echoes of life in our garments.

As a costume designer and stylist for films and advertising, I collect a lot of clothing from a variety of sources. I find the ingratitude with which I am sometimes forced to deal with clothing very difficult to reconcile with my own vision of it. For me, garments (especially our favorite pieces) contain parts of our soul and tell the stories of who we are, who we want to be or who we once were.From this philosophy and mountains of material, this series was created. In the studio, I build dolls that grow very organically and from the moment they almost have their shape, Aaron joins them with light and an eye for composition. At that point we continue to build together until these figures exude their full personality and we can capture that one "spark of life" moment.

‘Echoes’ is a series of dolls created using discarded or secondhand clothing. It is a statement about the stories and life still left in clothing when we are done using it.

Once we have photographed this final image, the dolls are completely dismantled again. The garments we use are never broken down. This also ensures that sometimes in the full sequence you can see garments recurring in different photographs. It proves again how many lives a piece can have.

The work can be shown as a series or an individual photograph. In some cases, we present the photograph together with a pile of clothing that the dolls were made with under the hung work. In this way we clearly show the viewer a link between a lifeless pile of clothing and the value it still has when the pieces are viewed in a different way.

Creations: Gudrun Wylleman
Photographer: Aaron Lapeirre

Exhibitions

13/10 ‘23

Industriemuseum
9000 GENT

2/06 - 1/09 ‘24

Gallery NANDA
9160 LOKEREN

For more information about ECHOES, the online catalogue or pricing, please contact gudrun@nimmerland-studio.com