Dress Tents

Conceived by artists Robin Lasser and Adrienne Pao, the Dress Tents are wearable architectures, a conflation of fashion, photography, and performance art.

Robin Lasser + Adrienne Pao, Salty Water: South Bay Salt Flats Dress Tent, installed in Salt Ponds transitioning to wetlands near Redwood City, CA, 2010

The Dress Tents are wearable architectures, a conflation of fashion, photography, and performance art. The dress tent installations and photographs provide a forum for connecting our bodies to the landscape. It is next to impossible to ponder that connection without taking into consideration environmental and social justice issues. Each dress tent in the series uniquely explores these relationships.

Robin Lasser + Adrienne Pao, Furry Dress Tent, installed in Oakland Hills Redwoods, Oakland, CA, 2005. Photograph: 30” W x 36” H Chromogenic Print. — **Top:** Robin Lasser + Adrienne Pao, *Salty Water: South Bay Salt Flats Dress Tent*, installed in Salt Ponds transitioning to wetlands near Redwood City, CA, 2010. **Above:** Robin Lasser + Adrienne Pao, *Furry Dress Tent*, installed in Oakland Hills Redwoods, Oakland, CA, 2005. Photograph: 30” W x 36” H Chromogenic Print

The wearable architecture is installed and worn in the landscape in order to be photographed. Humor is paramount in these photographs, which are meant to be alluring and whimsical. In other instances, the installations are designed to be performed and displayed in a gallery, museum, public space as interactive living sculptures. These tent-like forms are worn at the opening reception and additional scheduled performance times. A dress form substitutes for the figure during the duration of the exhibition. The interior of the installations house video and sound pieces that refer to the original landscape.