Dr Tassia Joannides

Research Summary: 

With a focus on the wearable and material symbols of gender and sexuality as they are presented within Western popular culture, my research looks at ways of playing with or subverting symbols through representation on diverse bodies. These symbols are often represented within Western popular culture such as in film and fashion, shaping the way we understand and interpret clothing and accessories in relation to sexuality and gender. To contextualise these themes I draw on the history of art, craft, film and fashion, aiming to provoke new ways of thinking about gender representations and wearable symbols within the context of contemporary fashion practices. The creation of new wearable and interactive or participatory garments and accessories seeks to extend thinking around contemporary investigations of the body, materials, gender, sexuality, feminism and film theory.

Biography:

Dr Tassia Joannides is the Program Manager of the Bachelor of Fashion (Design) in the School of Fashion and Textiles at RMIT in Melbourne, Australia. Her interdisciplinary performative works situate and intersect the fields of art, craft and design and her practice-led PhD examined relationships between materials and cultural stereotypes of female desire, resulting in a series of ambiguous textile sculptures that expand normative signifiers of sexuality and highlight material symbolism. Tassia is a founding member of Triple F collective (a culturally diverse group of female artists) who organise exhibitions and conversations about intersectional art and design. Her current research focuses on contemporary investigations of identity, including explorations of the body, materials, gender, sexuality, culture and feminism. Tassia has exhibited broadly both nationally and overseas including Australia, USA, Japan and Germany, and completed residencies at JamFactory Contemporary Art & Design in South Australia, and the Rhode Island School of Design in the USA. She lives and works in Naarm/Melbourne on the unceded land of the Wurundjeri people of the Kulin Nation.

Dr Tassia Joannides, Evening Shawl (detail), 2019
Second-hand underwear, thread 1500x500x500 mm