With its first iteration in 2019, Returns has evolved from a solo inquiry into a dynamic interdisciplinary collaborative practice. Developed with collaborators from the fields of dance, somatics, choreography, costume, sound and sculpture, Returns was most recently adapted into a 30-day installation performance, co-presented by The Dance Centre and the PuSh Festival (Vancouver) in January 2024.
For this iteration, Gossen worked alongside performance collaborators Tone Puorro, Erika Mitsuhashi and Jaewoo Kang. Holding each commercial garment as a material archive of complex systems, performers used their bodies to unearth the quiet choreographies of garment labour, supply chains, retail systems, and consumer exchange. At the same time, they drew on visual references from across time and space, using the fast fashion garments to recreate and recontextualize moments of social history.
The Returns 2024 installation performance generated hundreds of new outfits and sculptures, photos of which were presented throughout the building of The Scotiabank Dance Centre for the duration of the show. Photos of the exhibition can be found here.
Concept and Direction: Nellie Gossen / Performers: Nellie Gossen, Erika Mitsuhashi, Jaewoo Kang and Tone Puorro / Choreographic Mentorship: Emmalena Fredriksson / Sound Design: Nancy Tam / Production Manager & Technical Director: Paula Viitanen Aldazosa / Stage Manager: Sierra Megas / Garment Photography: Luciana Freire D'Anunciação / Artistic Support: Marisa Kriangwiwat Holmes / Front of House: Ali Bosley & Shamina Senaratne
This work was made with the genrous support of The Dance Centre and the Canada Council for the Arts.
Garments purchased on January 6th, 2024
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January 7th Historical Reference: Queen Elizabeth I
January 7th Historical Reference: Queen Elizabeth I
January 11th Historical Reference: 17th Century Joseon Princess
January 28th
Contemporary Reference: Alexander McQueen
Contemporary Reference: Alexander McQueen
January 16th Free Form Collaborative Outfit
February 1st Free Form Collaborative Outfit
Reconstructed garments, sucessfully returned on February 4th, 2024
Returns Exhibition at The Scotiabank Dance Centre
The Returns 2024 installation performance generated hundreds of new outfits, photos of which were presented throughout the building of The Scotiabank Dance Centre for the duration of the show. New photos were added each day, quietly inserting the artists’ garment labor into the daily workings of this dance institution.
Photos: Dennis Ha
Photos: Dennis Ha
Returns (2020)
Returns uses the widespread 30-day retail return policy as the framework for a month-long inquiry: garments of all kinds are purchased and brought to the studio where they are very carefully taken apart. For one month, garment materials are set in constant motion, becoming an ever-shifting landscape of new clothing constellations and sculptural forms. At the end of the 30-day period, all garments are meticulously reconstructed back into their original forms and returned to stores for a full refund.
With a total of 8 iterations completed to date, this project has taken many different forms. Shown here is an early iteration, completed between Sept. 18th and Oct. 13th, 2020, as part of Gossen’s
graduation work at Kunsthochschule Berlin Weissensee, in Berlin, Germany.
Photos: Nellie Gossen
With a total of 8 iterations completed to date, this project has taken many different forms. Shown here is an early iteration, completed between Sept. 18th and Oct. 13th, 2020, as part of Gossen’s
graduation work at Kunsthochschule Berlin Weissensee, in Berlin, Germany.
Photos: Nellie Gossen
Nail Studio (2025)
Nail Studio takes the shape of a pop-up nail salon. Weaving
together lineages of expansive fashion and beauty practice with the
teachings of spiritual- and end-of-life care, Nellie uses the time-space
of a manicure to hold open, one-on-one conversations about change.
Changing bodies, changing weather, changing worlds, changing plans. How
do we love that which is irrevocably changing? Nail Studio is an invitation to
collaboratively explore the familiar yet expansive ritual of a manicure
as a means of tending to our bodies, as we tend to the changes our world
is asking of us.
This work has been presented at Unit/Pitt (Vancouver), Lake Studios (Berlin), as well as in homes across Vancouver and Berlin.
Photos: Nellie Gossen and Dušana Baltić
This work has been presented at Unit/Pitt (Vancouver), Lake Studios (Berlin), as well as in homes across Vancouver and Berlin.
Photos: Nellie Gossen and Dušana Baltić
Long Life
Long Life is a reflection on a year spent studying and practicing end of life care. Marking the end of this intensive period, Nellie spent the month of June 2023 in residence at the Icelandic Textile Centre where she began to weave together the traditions of her two fields of practice: clothing making and spiritual care.
Long Life is the first step along a path of creating garments for sacred life transitions. For this work, Nellie used silk dyed with Alaskan Lupine flowers to create a set of ceremonial pajamas to hold her body at the time of her own eventual death.
This work was presented at the Icelandic Textile Centre (Blonduos) in June 2023.
Photos: Marisa Krangwiwat Holmes, taken in Nellie’s home garden
Long Life is the first step along a path of creating garments for sacred life transitions. For this work, Nellie used silk dyed with Alaskan Lupine flowers to create a set of ceremonial pajamas to hold her body at the time of her own eventual death.
This work was presented at the Icelandic Textile Centre (Blonduos) in June 2023.
Photos: Marisa Krangwiwat Holmes, taken in Nellie’s home garden
