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Costume Design: Katja Loher’s Video Planets

Just wanted to share some information about a recent costume design project I did for a Swiss artist named Katja Loher. Katja’s recent work involves video projected onto weather balloons and shown inside video sculptures, respectively called video planets and miniverses. The video depicts activity from a birds’ eye view, involving choreographed movements that spell messages to the viewer. In this newest work Sculpting in Air, human bodies form letters that when composed into words and then sentences communicate simple questions aimed at the viewer or some unknown observer. Their movement takes place on a spinning hard drive which occasionally abruptly stops, and we are informed of a system error. The questions posed by the arrangement of bodies go unanswered as the divide between virtual space and reality cannot be bridged. Or at least that’s my interpretation.

My job was to create the costumes for the piece based on the concept of a futuristic worker, keeping in mind that the work would primarily be seen from above. This meant that there was a greater emphasis on the shoulders and headgear to help shape the silhouette as seen from this vantage point. This was the first time Katja and I had worked together, as suggested by a mutual friend Gin, and we soon found that we were both space nuts and had a common understanding of the visual language of science fiction. Katja was great to work with and very inspiring as an artist and as a director. I had only a couple of weeks to design and execute the costumes before shooting started, but it all came together. Katja’s assistant Luke Emery was also incredibly helpful in gathering materials and completing the helmets. All in all, an excellent project that I feel super proud of.

The piece is now on view at the Maxxi Museum in Rome through December 2010. You can watch it online at maxxi.katjaloher.com. For a project description, the script, cast and credits, and more photos see Sculpting in Air.

Below: Video stills from Sculpting in Air and photos from the shoot taken by Marco Monti