Yeohlee: Energetics: Clothes and Enclosures

Energetics: Clothes and Enclosures

“Clothes, Yeohlee is fond of saying, “have magic.” Yet that magic is for the designer mingled with reason and collateral with discipline and astringent practice. Not only is Yeohlee one of the most ingenious makers of clothing today, but she is one of the few practitioners of her art who has fully eschewed fashion-hyperbole to engage in a critical discourse about clothing in space, on the body, and in anthropometrics. Intellectually, Yeohlee is the new Bernard Rudofsky, offering insights into clothing as a cultural authropology. But Rudofsky’s only clothing design was scientific experiment; Yeohlee advances theory and broaches the garment not only as specimen but as beautiful, viable apparel.”

– the late Richard Martin
Metropolitan Museum of Art
February 1998

Yeohlee is thinking about clothing as a first shelter, the modular system in which one dwells even more intimately than in architecture.

For Ken Yeang T. R. Hamzah and Yeang Sdn Bhdg, the primary function of a builtform is that of shelter, providing protection against the harsh natural elements. Thus, historically climate is the single most endemic factor in our landscape, apart form geology. Socio-economic-political conditions changes as would also visual tastes. The climate-responsive building has thus a greater fit with its environmental and cultural context.

Relevant content is included in the book YEOHLEE: WORK click to purchase.

Aedes East Gallery
Berlin, Germany
May 22nd – June 19th 1998

Netherlands Architecture Institute
Rotterdam, Netherlands
Aug 1st – Sept 6th 1999