Notes on the film
Made with hand-dyed textiles and clothes sourced from the animator’s mother, acquaintances, and thrift shops, Mom’s Clothes film is a moving autobiographical portrait of the proverbial queer closet. Using replacement animation – a method of creating the impression of movement using similar objects – Wong magnifies repeating graphic motifs and assembles them into buzzing, whirling surfaces that mimic the nervous energy of budding intimacies and untenable family conversations.
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the film makes a material connection between different textiles and the cultural and gender identities they evoke
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the film makes a material connection between different textiles and the cultural and gender identities they evoke
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the film makes a material connection between different textiles and the cultural and gender identities they evoke
Guided by the animator’s voiceover, the film’s animated sequences explore the cultural expectations and gender ideals evoked by different fabrics. As Wong’s voice regretfully confesses to years of muted outfits and dampened feelings, the fabrics fulfil his desire for queer acceptance with bursts of flamboyant patterns and saturated colours. Mom’s Clothes draws on queer fashion stereotypes — fierce animal prints and sparkling rainbow glitter — before shifting to subtler references in its appeal to broaden the cultural palette of the queer wardrobe.
replacement animation created through recycled, thrifted clothing
For the production of this film, Wong used a motion-control camera rig to photograph similar fabric motifs and manipulate fabric under the camera. The effect amplifies the fabrics’ textures, hues, and dynamic pattern repetitions. The fabrics are endowed with a sense of formal expressiveness. Although the voiceover admits to the isolating facets of the artist’s queer upbringing, the collective archive of clothing also reveals the connective power of clothes.
Wong’s under-the-camera and replacement animation process for this film
“Threads and Fibres: Animated Textiles”
This film is featured in the curatorial essay written by Dr. Alla Gadassik, published in OIAF 2024 festival book.
Read Essay
