nynkemoens

“No Place like Home” is a collection about future human life. How would we react as a society to the so-called apocalypse? I imagined people, more specifically the ones able to afford it, trying to save their lives by stepping into a cryochamber. Some believe this technology enables us to wake up from the dead in the future. Looking further into this process, I realised this way of ‘survival’ could only be used by the wealthiest members of society. However, instead of just preserving their bodies, they would also try to preserve their status for their future life, turning the cryochamber into a kind of sarcophagus. A tomb that was meant to allow a transformation from a human’s life on earth to their life after death. The family of the deceased would provide them with all objects and status symbols they would need in the afterlife. The cryochamber becomes a way of conserving an entire identity instead of just a biological body, including our belongings and memories of a past life.

As in today’s society, the identity and individuality of a human being have become the most important aspects. They define our daily life and the way we are perceived by others. We create an en- tire story -mostly online- enhancing our looks, lifestyle and status. Besides the ways in which they would try to survive, I thought about the types of people who would be able to do so. I decided to work around today’s archetypes, each representing one of the seven deadly sins.
I thought about the moment they would wake up from their century-long sleep in the cryochamber. What kind of world would they wake up to? The first thing that came to mind was a completely deserted planet. A place with no resources and no luxuries. The status, occupation and iden- tity these people created in their previous society no longer mean any- thing. All the objects they brought with themselves are now entirely void of meaning. The purpose they created with their careers and occupations is no longer valid. They are forced to create a new life for themselves and survive with what they brought. Using their clothes and belongings, they try to create new and practical objects. They become nomads, travel- ling around and looking for a place to settle while setting up a new life.
The collection explores these elements in different ways. From fa- bric manipulations, reminding us of the effect of cryochambers to draped fabrics recreating the effect of vacuum-packed bodies. Gar- ments provide storage to carry around someone’s daily necessities, inspired by the way nomads will pack an entire existence around their body. I also used upcycled and sustainable materials for most of the collection. As using these materials is not only a necessity today but
also the only materials the characters of the collection would have ac- cess to. They would in fact be forced to re-use their own garments.