Kush Newatia — Parsons Festival 2022

Collection

Video: "Agentic Beings"

In Hinduism, we are taught all living things have atman (soul), they have consciousness and are all interconnected agentic beings. This is seen in gardens where humans connect and explore personal soulful relationships with flora, developed from innate attraction and sensory activity.

The symbiosis between plants and humans is a conversation of agency forever in flux. Similarly, the interaction of body and garment is an intimate conversation of agency between the form/motion of the body and the fabric clothing it.

As a gardener shapes, trims, cultivates, and removes plants, I construct, slash and remove fabric from the body. As a plant grows out of its gardened form, the body breaks free of the fabric conforming it, both twisting, growing, and wearing of their own agency.

The symbiotic interactions between bodies and garments are reciprocal cycles that leave visual memories on their surfaces; footprints and creases, wear and tear. As leaves fall, appliqué drops. As leaf colours transform, fabrics fade. As branches are trimmed, threads release. As plants are cleared, slashes appear.

Bio

Kush Newatia is a British Indian designer and artist. His multinational upbringing influenced his understanding of the world. Kush’s Hindu cultural heritage as well as western thought and traditional techniques inform his styles and practice. He has been interested in natural forms with the most intimate being that of the body, this led him to fashion design as a pillar of his creative practice.

His practice explores the symbiosis between humans and flora through integrating academic and artistic research methods, defining the exploration process as his product and any physical outcomes as byproducts. Kush recently completed his BFA in fashion design at Parsons School of Design, New York. During his education, he worked for Ahluwalia and The Row.