Join us on Wednesday 23rd September, 6:30–8:30pm for DEADSTOCK, a performance and gathering with artist Riana Head-Toussaint.
DEADSTOCK is a transdisciplinary, ongoing body of work that aims to re-work fashion into a more accessible, radical and meaningful practice; breathing new life into the fabric of the culture.
For this event, Riana Head-Toussaint will facilitate an experimental dressing room: part-performance and part live-archival community space. Audiences are invited to witness a series of ‘fit checks’, in which participants who responded to the open call attend in their favourite outfits and speak about their styling choices; who they are, why they love their clothes, and why they work for them.
These interviews will prioritise crip/disabled, queer, trans, Bla(c)k and Brown voices, spotlighting and documenting the experiences of people who contribute significant creativity and innovation to fashion, but are often under-platformed and de-prioritised within the broader culture.
The interviews will be recorded and become part of DEADSTOCK’s living archive, alongside the project’s other offerings: clothing alteration and modification support, a slow-fashion line, and community-focused events spanning workshops, talks and gatherings.
Following the ‘fit checks’, the dressing room will transition into an informal space for participants and audience members to gather, connect over food and refreshments, and further explore the broader DEADSTOCK archive.
This is a space to connect and build community through clothing, while actively re-centring the voices that have always innovated and sustained fashion culture.
This event is free to attend and will take place at Auto Italia. To book, follow the link here or email info@artworkassociation.org
Call for Participants
As well as joining as an audience member, you can register to participate in your own ‘fit check’ and contribute your story to this ongoing living archive.
Crip/disabled, queer, trans, bla(c)k and/or brown voices prioritised.
- Participants must be 18+.
- Register via the link here and further details will be shared with participants closer to the date.
Riana Head-Toussaint (she/they) is an interdisciplinary crip/disabled artist, DJ and curator/community organiser of Afro-Caribbean heritage. Her practice sits at the intersection of creative expression, activism, cultural exchange and disability justice.
Riana creates across choreography, performance, DJing and sound/music production, film, writing, and installation. Their work is aimed at challenging deep-rooted systems and ways of thinking, driving social change, and creating spaces that invite deeper embodiment and expansive ways of experiencing the world.
Her work has taken place in carparks, post-industrial ruins, raves, clubs, galleries, theatres, and online/digital spaces, and has been commissioned and presented by a range of institutions and organisations including Human Rights Watch, the Art Gallery of NSW, the Opera House, Buxton Contemporary, Carriageworks, The Keir Foundation, Arts House, the British Council, Soft Centre, Perth Festival, Fremantle Biennale, Frame Biennial, the IMA, Utp, Casula Powerhouse, Pari Ari and more.
Riana is the founder and curator of CRIP RAVE THEORY, a project that draws on intersectional crip/disabled knowledge to expand sound and club culture.
They currently reside on sacred, unceded Wurundjeri Country in so-called Australia.