About the artist

Emily Collett

Identity Agency

Website / Social Media: www.emilycollett.com
www.forthpersona.wixsite.com/costume

“HOW IS YOUR COSTUME AGENTIVE?”

This exhibition suggested that archived costume becomes agentive in its own right, by acquiring a ‘fourth persona’ when entering an archive; that of the collective identity of the society from within which the costume was created (on top of the embodied private, public and professional personas of the individual/s who wore the costume).

BIOGRAPHY

Emily Collett is a set and costume designer and educator whose practice comprises theatre, dance, film, television, and costume research. Emily was nominated for a Green Room Award for Dream Home, Northcote Town Hall 2015, and has received grants from the Ian Potter Cultural Trust and ArtStart. Recent design credits include Control, Red Stitch Actor’s Theatre, 2019; Wild Cherries, La Mama Courthouse, 2019; Whale, Northcote Town Hall, 2019; and A Little Night Music, Watch This, 2018.
A tutor in design and PhD candidate at the University of Melbourne, her research focuses on the topic of costume for performance as a cultural marker, specifically in relation to Australian identity.

TITLE: The Fourth Persona: Archaeology of Costume (an experimental exhibition)

Costume as a cultural marker: How does archived performance costume indicate notions of national identity?

When a performance costume ceases to be used as a tool for performance and enters an archive, it acquires a ‘fourth persona’. On top of the private, public and professional identities a single costume represents of the individual/s who wore it; an archived costume also then acquires a collective identity – that of the society from within which the costume was created.

The costume tells multiple stories of people, time and place, and as such, is a valuable research tool to better understand the nuanced identity of a collective of humans.

Can a collection of archived costumes, then, inform notions of a greater collective, or ‘national’, identity?

How can archived costume be exhibited in a way that allows communication of these multiple histories, and enable an audience to gain a sense of something greater than just the individual who wore it?

Held in July 2019 in the Costume Workroom at the Victorian College of the Arts, University of Melbourne, this experimental exhibition aimed to test the ways in which these questions could be answered by placing archived costume at the centre of enquiry as a cultural marker.

IMAGE CAPTIONS & CREDITS

01
Entrance to, and beginning of, the exhibition, including Costumes for: Rites
Characters: Assorted elements (wind, earth, fire, water)
Worn by: Artists of Bangarra Dance Theatre and The Australian Ballet
Company: Bangarra Dance Theatre and The Australian Ballet
Designer: Jennifer Irwin
Year premiered in Australia: 1997
Costume location: The Australian Ballet Production Centre, downstairs
Full costumes consist of: multiple costumes feature for each of the six sections of the dance work
https://fourthpersona.wixsite.com/costume/rites-1