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source:collectiftextilecom
Guda Koster est une sculpteure, performeuse et photographe néerlandaise. Son travail se caractérise par l’usage de couleurs vives, de vêtements aux motifs graphiques qu’elle met en scène dans ce qu’elle appelle des sculptures vivantes qu’elle immortalise en photos.

Passionnée de vêtements tant pour leur histoire, leur rôle symbolique ou ésotérique, elle en a fait son medium principal. Elle les utilise pour leur capacité à produire du sens en parlant de notre identité, de notre statut social, de nos fonctions, par la manière dont ils modifient notre corps.

Elle les considère comme une forme d’art en soi traitant de notre relation à nous-même et au reste du monde. Ses idées partent d’un tissu ou d’un imprimé qu’elle coud elle-même, puis elle se met en scène dans un décor minimaliste où les codes se trouvent chamboulés.

Un travail d’une grande poésie où les motifs occupent une place centrale.Comment ne pas tomber sous le charme de Gua Kosher!
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source:galerietammenpartnerde
Guda Koster is a Dutch artist who creates living sculptures and performances, which the photographs are the results of. Koster’s works are created in parallels of time, space and textile.In her works Koster uses fabrics, colours and patterns that underline the codes and meanings our clothing conveys

How would you describe your works? I make installations, sculptures and photographs in which clothing plays an important part. Clothing doesn’t just have a function but also conveys a message. In our everyday lives we communicate identity and social position primarily by means of our clothing. Clothing can be seen as a visual art form that expresses the way we see ourselves and our relationship with the world around us. What themes are you interested in exploring in your works? I have a lot of books on clothing: not just on fashion but also on functional clothing like company uniforms, folk dresses, ritual cloths and of course books on other artist who work with textiles. Daily life, identity and transforming the human body are important themes in my work. A work may begin with the pattern of a fabric found on the market or it may start with an idea. What techniques do you use? I always sew the clothing myself and those will then be part of an installation or sculpture. I may also build a set, dress myself and photograph myself in the set with the self-timer. I use fabrics, colours, patterns and new cuts to underline the codes and meanings clothing conveys. On the website you present a series of photographs. Can you comment on them? In these photographs I am often ‘invisibly’ playing the leading role, dressed in self-made outfits, often photographed against a patterned background. The work looks professional and serious, but it is humorous as well. In de work Twins the pattern of the fabric is transformed into the windows of a skyscraper and in the work Snowwhite a furry coat is turned into an animal. You can see the photographs as little stories. Your interest in fashion, interior design and architecture are evident in your works. What connects you to these disciplines? You can also mention theatre, but the connection is the use of textiles and the relation people have with their surroundings. The clothed human figure becomes an integral part of a space or environment. I am inspired by daily life, but I exaggerate it or I give it a humorous twist. What are your views and how would you describe tendencies in contemporary Dutch photography? I have seen al lot of Dutch photography, but I don’t regard myself as a photographer. I am not interested in photographical ‘problems’. I make ‘living’ sculptures and the photograph is the result of the performance, therefore I am more a sculptor than a photographer. Therefore I am not so involved in Dutch photography and I don’t’ think there is a special ‘Dutch style’. What are you working on at the moment? I am working on something I have never done before. Fellow artist Jan Theun van Rees (www.onewallaway.com) has made the book „Hidden stories”. During the last ten year he has been photographing important cultural buildings in Amsterdam (Stedelijk Museum, the Rijksmuseum, the Amsterdam Jewish museum, theatre Carre etc.) during renovation. Not all these photo’s are on display in the book. He invited me and some other artists to choose one of those ‘leftovers. I have chosen one of a stripped room in the Stedelijk Museum. He prints it for me in the format of 3 x 2 meters and that will be the background for me to develop a new work. I can do with the photograph whatever I want. I have always built my own set and I am curious how my work will function with this illusionistic background that is not my own: it will bring other problems to solve and hopefully new ideas. Interview for internet platform ART CART, 2014.
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source:artcarteu
With her installations, sculptures and photographs, Dutch artist Guda Koster transforms the human body and attaches a new identity to her characters or to herself, using clothing as the main visual art form, patterns and colours to create surreal stories.

It is the outfit that defines daily life, our social position, the interaction with others and how we see ourselves. Often exaggerated, with humorous twists, reality is distorted or, better said, cleverly organized into codes and meanings which we can unriddle by focusing on the setting or the fabrics usually sewed by the artist herself.

The illusion and contrast between what is visible and what is invisible is also something that Guda Koster likes to play with. The impossibility of seeing the face of the subjects, covered with small houses, geometric shapes or certain burdens of social or religious nature, erases the limits between man and context, raises the mystery and appetite to learn more, offering the work an universal value.