ROUTE COUTURE

2008-

Route Couture is a collection of sculpture-like garments and accessories, which are made of the fur and leather from road kill animals. Project includes also photographs of the garments and documentary photographs of the process, where artists have collected carcasses from the roadsides, prepared and tanned the skins and produced art pieces out of those.

Many of the garments are made in haute couture-style. Also part of the photographs imitate fashion and advertisement photographs.

Artists of the project are Leena Pukki, Karoliina Paappa, Stina Riikonen ja Lari Lätti.

Traditionally fur is a luxury product, the image suit of upper class. Road kills are collected at the same time when the shoulder of a road is cleaned from trash. The project contemplates the appreciation and value of life by advancing the carcass from a position of garbage to a respected form.

In the world of fur farms and intensive livestock farming Route Couture tries to approximate human and wild animals instead of alienation.  

Route Couture also comments advertisement photograph. Really often the image of a commercial product and the image of a consumer after buying the product is far more important than content of a product. Road kills challenge the limits of content.

Artworks from Route Couture-project have been exhibited in many group- and solo exhibitions. Some of the exhibitions have been hung for example to shop windows to imitate fashion context, some have been displayed in galleries.