Mei-chuan Yang – France

Flying Spirit

Description

Deconstruct & Reconstruct – Timeless Truth

The milliner uses only one single feather to interpret the theme. The world is constantly in the process of changing and converting into new forms and fragments. Deconstruction & reconstruction is the timeless evolution truth of the universe. In my belief, living things don’t disappear. When they pass away, they decompose and reconstruct into something else in other forms that we might not know. As an ancient Chinese poet wrote, ”The fallen flowers are not an unfeeling thing, though turned into mud, they will nurture next flowers growth.” I believe this is the eternal circulation of life.

A pheasant feather was deconstructed by carefully cutting off every barb from its shaft except for those few barbs on the top. Each cut-off barb was “replanted”(sewn) onto the sterile-look surface of the silk hat base and some of them bundled on top of it. The silk base was made by fabric draping technique to create a look of sterile land. The shaft bends naturally so the whole hat looks like a question mark, asking “what is this?” The answer is “a feather deconstructed and reconstructed.” It is still the same feather, but with a new look and new meaning…

Materials

• A pheasant feather (all barbs are cut off from the shaft except for those on the top)
• Grey silk fabric
• Buckram
• Wire

Techniques

• Feather barbs cutting and trimming
• Barbs sewn one by one onto the surface of the hat base fabric
• Hat base – buckram blocking
• Hat base – draping sewing technique
• Wiring