Vivek Shraya to serve as curator for Mass Exodus 2019
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“Equity, decolonization and sustainability are required for success and systemic transformation in the twenty-first century fashion industry. Our school aims to teach students to unleash their creativity and critical thinking to design clothing and fashion media that design a better world,” Dr. Ben Barry, Chair of Fashion shared.
Mass Exodus has been a celebrated fashion event for over 30 years developed by and for the students of the School of Fashion at Toronto Metropolitan University. This year, School of Fashion invites trailblazing artist and academic, Vivek Shraya to serve as curator for Mass Exodus 2019. Her writing and music inspire our students to draw from their own identities when they create fashion and use their creative work to challenge oppressive social forces and design a more just world.
Shraya is “excited to see what kinds of creative designs Ryerson fashion students are imagining alongside a time when identities like "non-binary" and cultural movements like fat liberation are gaining more visibility, and how [Ryerson Fashion] students are helping to push fashion forward.”
She shared, “when we are talking about fashion, we are talking about the body – allowing the body to feel warm, safe, comfortable and sexy. This connection is often lost, which comes at a cost to marginalized bodies in particular, where fashion can not only feel inaccessible to us but this inaccessibility can then perpetuate hatred for our bodies. This is why discussions around social justice and inclusion must be centered in the fashion industry.”
Vivek Shraya is an artist whose body of work crosses the boundaries of music, literature, visual art, and film. Her best-selling new book, I’m Afraid of Men, was heralded by Vanity Fair as “cultural rocket fuel,” and her album with Queer Songbook Orchestra, Part-Time Woman, was included in CBC’s list of Best Canadian Albums of 2017.
For more information on Vivek Shraya, visit: https://vivekshraya.com/ (external link, opens in new window)
About Mass Exodus
Mass Exodus 2019: An Inevitable Shift will take the audience on a journey that will entice the senses through a captivating event of colour, light and art.
The two components of Mass Exodus 2019, Installation and Runway, will focus on the progression and growth that occurs in the natural world. The student work of Fashion Communication capstones and Fashion Design collections will illustrate the shift from a cold reality to a bright future – where change is able to exist indefinitely.
For more information on Mass Exodus, visit: https://massexodus.ca/ (external link, opens in new window) .