USELESS ARMOR is a performance costume piece featuring a large chainmail dress made of over 20,000 pop can pull tabs. I began crafting the dress in June of 2023. When completed, I will walk through various public spaces extremely slowly in silence while wearing the dress. 

 

The monotonous process of making this dress is a performance in and of itself, in an era where any activity that is not efficient, 'useful,' or productive is stigmatized (slow handcrafting is particularly feminized and thus designated as less useful). An inefficient making process is particularly at tension with armor, an apparel that is undeniably useful, with life or death stakes. However, in the context of our current society, armor is useless and out of use; I have no justification for making it. That being said, I perceive my menial, slow making of this dress not as an act of shame, indulgence, and failure, but rather one of protest. I perceive the making of this dress as an armor against the constant messaging to live more productively, usefully, and quickly; it forces me to embrace and don 'uselessness.' 

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This artist note will continue to be edited throughout the process of making the dress.