JAMPROJECT created the collaboration between young visual artist Mariam Saknelashvili and Tbilisi-based designer Lado Bokuchava within the format of Pre-Edition of the Fashion Film Festival Tbilisi.
Mariam Saknelashvili is a young, emerging visual artist, who sparked interest through her imaginative, dream-like illustrations. In her works, you can find it all: some glimpses of reality, fairy-tale-like creatures, and utopian yet utterly sentimental and personal novels.
Lado Bokuchava, founder and creative director behind the brand “LADO BOKUCHAVA” – characterized by a combination of bold radical colors and silhouettes, the design pieces are distinguished by retro-futuristic aesthetics and eclectic elements.
Mariam: I try to filter things all the time, to remove and forget unnecessary things from the mind, and to bring everything to a simpler and more essential level. In my case, costume design comes quite naturally, I draw humans and when I don’t want them to be naked, I would want them to wear something, there were many times that I have finalized drawing, and then I had to make a decision what to wear for them, at some places they are wearing versions of my everyday clothes.
Lately, I got interested in what is left of staying alone with yourself and how this process creates your own personality – your own self.
As, your personality doesn’t exist as something pure and only yours, and your personality is created by environment, past, and present. All this shapes you. So, I have that in my work as well, environment and personality – a character is created by these little details.
This summer I went near a river, for a very short period of time, but it had a very strong hold on me, after that, I always want to express the experience of the river.
When I see works from last year or maybe two, I feel the distance from my characters, like this or that character is no longer with me as I have changed myself.
Lado: When in my childhood I decided to create clothes, I always wanted to make things that are related to utopia, mystical movies. Even now when I work on a collection, I still want to make something that doesn’t include fabric in it, I want to experiment with a material that has more effects, more possibilities than reality provides, animation and graphics, and other mediums like that, make that possible.
In my childhood, in the 90-ies in the suburbs of Kutaisi, there was nothing but the TV, neither my parents were well acquainted with art, and I had no one who would tell me “Oh you like fashion? Go read this, go watch that”. The only thing was TV, by the way there I saw the documentary about Christian Dior, and that was the very first visualization of a designer if I won’t take into consideration my mom of course, who always was well-dressed, not particularly my style as she was always classic and minimalistic, but always well-dressed.
I see a real person and the only thing I do to prepare is to print the spaces, places, and things, where I imagine this particular person to be and interact with.
I love that my clothes for someone could be very futuristic but for me, they could be religious or gothic. Also, it could be dream-like and utopian that couldn’t be detected at first glance. In fashion and generally in art, I love that something specific, an object, even clothes or character can be perceived differently by different people. I love to mix things that are irrelevant to each other, without the irrelevance, I simply get bored. I can’t take the look too seriously, there should be some fun aspect to it, I have to make fun of it and the final result should be a little annoying.
I truly liked Mariam’s works; I think it comes very close to me. There are many fairy-tale-like, at some point fatal elements, that is why I really loved the idea of this collaboration.
Even Mariam’s characters, I like how they look, their facial features, I love the worlds she creates in novels, the stories that happen there, at some point absurd and gothic, and I love gothic so much, that’s why on my behalf collaboration went so easy, apart from the fact that we both were chosen without consulting, I think this collaboration is very interesting.
Mariam: I would never think that a designer would create costumes for my characters, that’s why it is such a great experience for me. I like Lado’s clothes, I like that he always adds details or color so that it annoys or disturbs you, it is uncommon but when you look at it, you know that something is not right, and you can’t understand what’s wrong, I like that very much about Lado’s work. I think it’s a challenge, of course, it is, as it’s not my vision it's someone else’s and I have to adjust to both of us, I mean it’s not hard as there still are shared interests and common grounds.
