The Lifedress, 2018 offers a new way for demonstration against sexual harassment and violence towards women, and consists of dresses made out of airbag fabric from cars: a high tech material made in Japan with a high resistance to impacts and fire. Each dress is made to protect against a different form of (sexual) harassment, and designed to change form when intimidation occurs. The work can be seen as a social comment on gender patterns in our society nowadays. Some forms of sexism and ways of speaking about women are so engrained into our society that we hardly notice them anymore or brush them off as ‘locker room banter’. There are myriad ways in which women try to protect themselves in their everyday lives against sexual harassment and violence and these dresses make us aware of this crude reality. Framis employs elements of technology, activism and performance in this new work. With LifeDress she aims to bring women together and open the debate. Framis discusses a serious issue, but through a surrealistic act.

New ways of demonstration for women is a topic Framis has been exploring over the past two decades with works such as Anti_dog, 100 Ways to Wear a Flag and Is My Body Public? These demonstrations are tools to protest against inequality towards women.

Thanks to: Rabo Art Collection and female colleagues of Rabobank
Supported by: Mondriaan Fonds
Photos by: Hesse de Jonge