The Clothing as Artworks: A Study of Iranian Artists’Approaches in the Exhibitions of 1380s

Abstract
Since ancient time clothes has been integrated into human life, though this is the 1960s and after when clothes have been described as an artistic concept. Nowadays, clothes in addition to their traditional functions including protection, coverage and beauty have found communicative function as well. Since 1960s, artists have benefited from such a powerful tool presenting their desired concepts and dispositions and have employed clothes in their installations, performances, videos, photographs, etc. to create artistic works and to communicate audiences. Similarly, in recent decades in Iran there have been exhibitions dealing with the issue of clothing as artworks. The main purpose of this research is to understand the status of Iranian conceptual clothing exhibitions held in the 2000s and to study the artists’approaches in these exhibitions. To achieve this purpose, after reviewing related literature to clothes and conceptual art as well as conceptual clothes as the bridge between these two concepts, the conceptual artists working with clothes in Iran were identified and their works were examined. Since such artists are rare in Iran and there is no archive of their opinions, approaches and works, in this research, participants were purposely selected and semi-structured interviews with them were conducted. Data gathered from these interviews were analyzed using quantitative methods. The collected data from face-to-face interviews and emails were transcribed, coded and finally the categories and patterns were identified and analyzed. The research findings indicate that this area of art in Iran has not developed extensively and only few artists have involved in the field of conceptual clothes. The results also show that one of the most salient factors in such disachivement can be a dearth of theoretical information and resources, unfamiliarity and indifference of audiences toward this field as well as various social, cultural and political obstacles in Iran. Artists who participated in this study could be divided in two groups in terms of their motivations in using clothes as artistic objects: 1) those view clothing as the second skin allowing artists communicate their ideas and feelings more openly and effectively with the audiences; 2) the group understanding clothes as a historical and cultural materials and uses them to represent their relationships with the world. The second group usually has addressed social and political issues. The most artists who presented conceptual clothing in their exhibitions during 2000s are educated in visual arts. The rest of artists under study have their education in fabric and clothing design and architecture. The study reveals that there is a meaningful relationship between the artists’ approaches to clothing and their educational background. Artists with education in fabric and clothing design had more functional approach to clothing than the other participants and more poorly presented in their exhibitions compared to the artists with visual art background. It seems these artists need stronger underlying theoretical basis sufficient to develop their initial ideas and to begin their artistic process of creation