about me
Chun-shan (Sandie) Yi
I make wearable art that addresses bodily and social experiences. Centered on histories and narratives generated within and performed by the body through everyday social interaction, my work aims to facilitate dialogue between the wearers and the viewers of these objects.
Crip couture focuses on body reconfiguration through mapping the memories and the living experiences of the disabled bodies. medical and surgical intervention. Altering the purpose of conventional prosthetics and orthotics, which aim to create more-or-less standardized body form and function, I blend prosthetics and jewelry to make a range of garments, accessories and footwear. Each wearable item is designed based on an individual’s medical experience, physical position and state of mind. Rather than rejecting the notion of physical alteration, I provide intimate and empathetic bodily adornment, not as a correctional physical aid, but as a tool for remapping and engaging with a new physical terrain, one embodied with personal standards of physical comfort and self-defined ideals of beauty.
As a collection of wearable works, this project explores the impact of ethical and medical decisions made about the body; the boundary between ethics and aesthetics; the idea of the body in flux; and body ownership (reclaiming the body). The objects and their wearers call for a recognition of collective Crip experiences and suggest the possibility for a new genre of wearable art, Disability Fashion.
Crip couture focuses on body reconfiguration through mapping the memories and the living experiences of the disabled bodies. medical and surgical intervention. Altering the purpose of conventional prosthetics and orthotics, which aim to create more-or-less standardized body form and function, I blend prosthetics and jewelry to make a range of garments, accessories and footwear. Each wearable item is designed based on an individual’s medical experience, physical position and state of mind. Rather than rejecting the notion of physical alteration, I provide intimate and empathetic bodily adornment, not as a correctional physical aid, but as a tool for remapping and engaging with a new physical terrain, one embodied with personal standards of physical comfort and self-defined ideals of beauty.
As a collection of wearable works, this project explores the impact of ethical and medical decisions made about the body; the boundary between ethics and aesthetics; the idea of the body in flux; and body ownership (reclaiming the body). The objects and their wearers call for a recognition of collective Crip experiences and suggest the possibility for a new genre of wearable art, Disability Fashion.
Education
Disability Studies, Ph. D. Candidate, University of Illinois at Chicago
MFA, University of California, Berkeley
MA, The School of the Art Institute of Chicago
BFA, The School of the Art Institute of Chicago
MFA, University of California, Berkeley
MA, The School of the Art Institute of Chicago
BFA, The School of the Art Institute of Chicago
practices/research interests |
location |
CV |
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Disability Studies
Disability Arts & Culture Disability Fashion Arts & Culture Accessibilities Museum Studies Social Justice Based Art Therapy |
Chicago, USA
Taipei, Taiwan |