Astrid Tîrlea does not believe that art belongs only on walls. Trained in fashion design, she treats clothing as a living canvas, one that moves, wrinkles, stretches and gathers new meanings through the person wearing it. Her pieces occupy the space between garment, image and performance. The body does not simply display the work. It becomes part of the composition and changes how that composition is read.
Working with spandex and constructed details such as strings or long sleeves, Tîrlea uses the flexibility of fabric to create images that are never entirely fixed. Illustrated gestures shift with posture and movement. A design may appear playful from one angle and more ambiguous from another. This responsiveness allows humour, suggestion and self-expression to enter the work without forcing them into a single interpretation.
Pieces such as Hands down!, Hands up! and Pwp jos use illustrated hands, glances and visual jokes to explore the relationship between touch, consent, clothing and the imagination. Their placement is deliberate, but the result depends upon the wearer’s own movement and attitude. What could have remained a static drawing becomes an encounter between surface and body. The work can be mischievous without becoming merely decorative, and intimate without losing its sense of agency.
No two people wear Tîrlea’s pieces in exactly the same way, which is central to their meaning. Clothing records individual posture, confidence and motion. By allowing the wearer to complete the image, she questions the boundary between art object and lived experience. Her practice proposes fashion as an active visual language, one that changes each time it enters the world.
Works by this artist.
New works from this artist are coming soon.