When is costume? Talk & Q&A by Rachel Hann (UK)

From August 3 to 16, wearable sculpture artist Daphne Karstens is artist-in-residence at the Plein Theater Production house. During her residency, she invites Rachel Hann – Associate Professor of Performance and Design at Northumbria University (Newcastle) – for a talk and Q&A on her research into costume within scenographic culture.

When is costume? This presentation takes that question as a starting point to investigate how and when something becomes ‘costume’. Building on new materialist readings of assemblage (DeLanda) and performance theory (Schechner), it explores how costume-led performances draw attention to the role of the wearable in contemporary art and culture.

Rather than treating costume as a fixed category—from Halloween costumes to theatre and film dress—the presentation argues that costuming offers a way of investigating how appearance is felt, performed, and regulated.

Drawing on case studies by artists and designers including Daphne Karstens and Sin Wai Kin, it revisits the concepts of showing dressing (Hann, 2019), gender-assemblages (Hann, 2022), and costume scenographics (Hann, 2023) to propose costuming as a unique way of exploring bodies caught in the act of appearance. The presentation concludes with a brief manifesto on costume cultures.

Kosten
€5,- inclusief drankje