Faculty of Art

Criticism and Curatorial Practice

Avery Geboers

Unbecoming Practices: The Material Language of Undoing

This essay is the culmination of a year's research for my thesis. It explores textiles as a surrogate body which acts as a visual and tactile metaphor for the self. Supported by feminist and gender theories of unbecoming, undoing and queer negativity, this essay aims to "illuminate parallels between the pain, labour and tact involved in the physical, emotional and mental undoing of the self and material processes of creation. Contrary to the majority of textile theory and practice, [it] will explore the aspects of textiles that are degenerative. As opposed to analyzing these practices as being inherently reproductive, unified and strong, it is important to look at the spaces and times between creation and success which are riddled with exploration, defeat and strife. Highlighted here are moments of pain, strain, finger-pricking, and knotting and the ways in which undoing becomes a method of surviving within the bind of success versus failure that is present in our current society." (excerpt taken from essay)

“"What happens when our bodies are at odds with our clothing? The undoing of clothing becomes markers of time and place; individual contexts coded in the fraying thighs, ripped knees, tattered sleeve cuffs and stained shirt collars. Jeans eventually split and internal bodily tensions eventually cause physical tears. It all becomes evidence of growth. It becomes a body that cannot be contained by the past. Bursting at the seams, it becomes a body that has moved on before you have. Bursting at the seams, clothing becomes undone before you do."”