Bart Hess I

Bart Hess's work has fascinated me for years and I have just found his 'garment district' work created for the Future Perfect Exhibition, Lisbon Architecture Triennale 12 Sep – 15 Dec 2013.

"I’m really interested in digital imperfections – I look at computer glitches and wonder how they would feel if you could touch them, and what kind of material they would be made from in the physical world. This piece imagines how people might dress themselves in the future – not in a style sense, but in how they would actually put on their clothing. Perhaps it would grow on their skin, or come from a lab. It’s the digital become tangible.I’m really interested in digital imperfections – I look at computer glitches and wonder how they would feel if you could touch them, and what kind of material they would be made from in the physical world. This piece imagines how people might dress themselves in the future – not in a style sense, but in how they would actually put on their clothing. Perhaps it would grow on their skin, or come from a lab. It’s the digital become tangible. could touch them, and what kind of material they would be made from in the physical world. This piece imagines how people might dress themselves in the future – not in a style sense, but in how they would actually put on their clothing. Perhaps it would grow on their skin, or come from a lab. It’s the digital become tangible." 

"I’m interested in any materials that you use daily – it can be paper, washing up liquid, wood, textiles of course, latex, whatever – but what I like is to really dive into that material and to try to make some magic by using it in a way that you’ve never used it before. I try to push and test the material as far as possible to see how it reacts. You always have expectations of how a material will respond and behave, but very often it does the exact opposite when it’s pushed to extremes. This moment inspires me, where you can feel the tension in the material; you can almost feel it in your belly, something strange is happening. A big thing in my work is that I try to make fluid materials static, and I try to make static materials almost fluid."

"I was interested in using wax in water because it becomes an echo of a movement, a solid trace of some invisible force or action. If you press a body part through liquid wax on water, as your body goes in deeper and deeper the shape stays, and it becomes a history of your movement. In a way, you can control the wax, but it also catches uncontrollable ripples and energy. The result really reminds me of the digital artefacts that I’m seeing in my world of software." Bart Hess talking with Jonathan Openshaw