Jaya Ruotolo

I have made a costume for a character that is based on a real life scientist in Russia who is part of the Avatar 2045, a project where the billionaire owner wants to ‘make the human brain immortal by transferring it into the body of a robot’. Alexander specialises in young blood transfusion, where he wants to ‘acquire blood from the young to prevent young party members from aging’. For a character I wanted to create a ‘conjoined twin’, where one is clearly taking the nutrients and sucking the life away from the other. I called them the Oppressed (symbolises the youth that’s being taking advantage of)  and the Oppressor (symbolises top party members). I feel like my garment has fulfilled the intention of showing how obsessed the rich are in accumulating immortality by the geometric sharp shapes of the Oppressor, which was inspired by Russian Suprematism. In comparison to the ruptured , wobbly silhouette of the Oppressed. The intention of my garment and my research has been specialised to reinforce how detached we are from the mega rich in terms of our priorities. During the Egyptian times, after the Pharaoh’s death, its servants were sacrificed, this is the same with my garment as the youth (oppressed) is sacrificed for the wealthy (oppressor), which is referenced in my Avatar 2024 poster.