The project ‘Residents of Ghost Town’ owes inspiration to ghost towns. Notably, the Brutalism architectural style typically associated with these buildings has a significant influence on the creative choices in this project. The term ‘ghost town’ describes cities that are derelict and abandoned. The abandoned buildings in ghost towns often bear a close resemblance to Brutalism architecture, which first emerged in the 1950s. The artist group Er Daliu (二打六) noted in their exhibition ‘重新雕塑’ (reshaping) that most ghost towns they visited had occupancy of less than ten per cent (Er Daliu, 2010). In this exhibition, another fascinating feature highlighted by Er Daliu was the prominent presence of construction workers in these ghost towns.
Before I narrowed down this theme, the article The Biggest Ghost Town in Guangzhou has My Broken Dream – describing the life of elder residents in ghost town – left me in awe and contemplation. I immediately connected with the despair and hopelessness which shrouded the lives of the socio-economically disadvantaged populations in ghost towns. My emotional connected to, and my intellectual curiosity about the lives in ghost towns drove me to further explore and narrow down this theme: the lives in ghost towns in connection with contemporary fashion.
In my collection, I have unpacked how I attempted to combine brutalism and ghost town in two aspects (silhouette and print). I have also explained how I made an effort to use the language of fashion to express my feelings towards and reflections on the ghost town residents’ lives and the broader social issues of sustainability and development.
