RELIGIOUS CLOTHING IN OUR MODERN SOCIETY

EL DUOMO IN FLORENCE - INSPIRATION PICTURE FROM THE CEILING

RELIGIOUS CLOTHING IN OUR MODERN SOCIETY

I am a born Catholic, and are very found of my religion. I love the dramaturgy within the Bible. As I am both an artist and a fashion and costume designer this subject is of huge interest for me. It contains stories,drama, characters and archetypes. An inspirational pot to dig into.

Designers find inspiration in a lot of areas of life. Religion is one of the most dominating subjects in human life. Something that have colored human behavior from ancient time. It covers a need within human psychology. It comes in many different forms and shapes. Even if Nietzsche tried to "kill" God in the 19 century together with other political thinkers as Karl Marx, the believe of God and religion just seem to grow. Only 16 % of human beings don't belong to a religion. Among those a lot belong to a belief with rules and boundaries similar to the religion they try to escape from.

I have lived in the Grønland district in Oslo through nine years, and have seen the religious clothing grow a lot through this years. Sometimes I find it fascinating, sometimes disturbing.This might be the reason that I have chosen to dig into this subject for some years. The reading of the bible have made me aware of that the Bible contains a lot of directions of clothing that have been given us from ancient times,and that still shape some of our rules of clothing till today also among non-religious and Christians. I applied The Artistic Fellows programme [ PHD ] for the subject RELIGIOUS CLOTHING IN OUR MODERN SOCIETY. I enjoy to have an academic approach to clothes like my Thesis The Cartoon Metal Experience. To dig into a subject with importance of today when our blended cultural societies cause us challenges of understanding.

I have actually worked with the subject of religion for a while, and you might find religion in a lot of my previous works also. I believe I am very much shaped from my religious DNA,born and baptized as a catholic in Spain. You can as an example see my religious painting "Kvinne med Sitroner",translated " Woman with Lemons " and "Snakes in Hell" that I have posted in my art blog homegallerygraciacerratothorsberg.blogspot.no, where I work with the same subject. Pictures inspired from the drama and archetypes in the Bible where I work with important subjects from the bible. I am also challenging some of the believes specially about the challenges female meet within the Bible and that still shapes and forms our lives.

I have chosen to build my large collection around this theme. I have therefore brought a lot of inspiration from Italy, the land of Catholicism, and used my own religion as a natural inspiration. I have visited a lot of churches, among them the Vatican. You might call my trip to Italy a pilgrim trip. I have studied the architecture, paintings and the sense of religion. I have also taken pictures from the architecture of buildings, colors that inspire me. The sense of the Catholic religion in Italy is very strong, and you can see it everywhere. Outside, in every corner there would be Icon pictures. The Gold fabrics from my previous works can remind me of the tile works inside churches. Both of the pictures in this page are taken through my Italy Trip.

ICON PICTURE FROM THE STREET OF NAPLES