Vengefully Changed Allegiance by Alison Harm
Exhibition runs from 23rd to 30th April 2024
Scottish Storytelling Centre, Edinburgh EH1 1SR
Vengefully Changed Allegiance is a solo exhibition of work by fashion designer Alison Harm, the founder of Edinburgh’s own Psychomoda clothing brand. Using industry scraps, vintage cloth and broken jewellery, Alison mixes different tartan patterns to create clothing items that challenge our opinions on tradition, and on what we should wear.
Curated specifically for the Pomegranates festival of international traditional dance (25-30 April), this exhibition of sustainable fashion also explores the living heritage of the tartan cloth still used by Highland dancers and for kilts.
By tradition, tartans are chosen according to a person’s clan however, Alison’s garments mix different tartan patterns together to create contemporary designs that question our need to safeguard our intangible cultural heritage, at the expense of innovation and fashion.
Fashion Designer Alison Harm said: “Fashion is cyclic, nothing is new. Just as today we might wear clothes of a bygone era to show our allegiance to a culture from the past, the Victorians did the same.
“A political Jacobite revivalist movement swept the UK in 1886, bringing a renewed interest in all things Scottish into the arts and fashion. Tartan cloth became a significant part of that movement.
“Almost a hundred years later, the youth of the UK, against a background of political and cultural dissent, again chose tartan as part of their tribal uniform, with a naive style consisting of a home-made, make-do-and-mend ethos.
“An anti-capitalist statement by the wearer. The wheel has turned again and sustainability is now the focus of the fashion industry. People want to express their dislike of the fast fashion behemoth which is ruining our planet.
“I have returned to tartan cloth to express this symbolism. By using industry scraps and remnants along with found objects, in the punk tradition, and irreverently mixing tartan patterns together to challenge the viewer’s perception of who can wear what, and to where – therefore suggesting they can step outside of societal expectations.”
Vengefully Changed Allegiance is part of Traditional Dance Forum of Scotland and TRACS programme of events showcasing Scotland’s traditional arts and cultural heritage. TRACS has been recently appointed as an advisor to UNESCO on Intangible Cultural Heritage (ICH) in Scotland and this exhibition showcases ICH in practice through highlighting the sustainability in the fashion industry while exploring the role of tartan in Scottish trad dance.
Admission to the exhibition is free, and includes daily drop-in, on-demand artist and curator-led tours.
Established in 2022, Pomegranates is Scotland’s springtime festival of Scottish and international traditional dance curated by the Traditional Dance Forum of Scotland and produced in partnership with TRACS, Moray House School of Education and Sport, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh City Libraries, Dance Base and the Scottish Storytelling Centre.
The festival celebrates Scottish traditional dance and traditional dance practised by cultural migrant communities across Scotland.
It provides a platform to showcase new dance commissions, exhibitions and residencies accompanied by live music, poetry, and art; and invites audiences to participate in ceilidhs, workshops (both in person and live streamed), tours, and talks about traditional dance from Scotland and around the world.
For tickets and more information visit:
https://linktr.ee/pomegranatesfest, https://www.tdfs.org/pomegranatesfest2024/