ART & DESIGN

INTERVIEW WITH GRACE LILLIAN LEE

Alexia Brehas

Grace Lillian Lee is a fashion designer and curator who is bringing Indigenous design to the forefront of the fashion industry. I had the honour of chatting to her about her work with the Cairns Indigenous Art Fair and the upcoming fashion performance as part of VAMFF, Birrimbi Dulgu Bajal. Squeezing my interview into her busy schedule only one day before the show, Grace is surprisingly bubbly. She begins speaking with an evident and authentic passion for her work and her involvement with Indigenous fashion design.

You are a fashion designer yourself. How does your work in fashion design compare to your curatorial exploits?

No one’s ever asked me that question before – good question, I like it! I guess they go hand in hand, because in the curatorial work, I get to work with designers like myself who are exploring their culture through fashion. So the fact that I’ve been able to do that as well really helps that whole process. But I think when I’ve created fashion I’ve always been quite theatrical. So as much as I love simplicity and easy to wear clothing, which I wear for myself, when I go to a presentation or a performance I want to be pushed emotionally. When I’m viewing something, I just want it to affect me. So I guess that for me to be able to do that within a curatorial role, that’s what I’m really looking for: how it’s going to affect people, and if that’s going to change their emotions and perceptions […]. And especially because it is Indigenous culture, it really creates a beautiful space for people to engage with Australian Indigenous culture in a different way, instead of just going to an art gallery or to a performance. They’re all beautiful in their own way, but this is something really new, where a lot of elements come together.

Birrimbi Dulgu Bajal fuses a traditional runway with vibrant performances. Can you speak about the creative decisions behind this unique event?

It started in 2013, and I didn’t know what the show looked like. But I knew that I had an opportunity to really do something unique to Australian Indigenous culture on a fashion platform. And I wanted to help that happen. So that really made me realize that there was potential to create change not only to the spectator, but also to the models involved. To be able to connect with their lineage through adorning themselves and wearing the clothes, and understanding where they came from. And then also collaborating – a lot of my work is done collaboratively […] So for this show, I’m collaborating with Fiona Wirrer-George, and she is a choreographer and an amazing dancer, writer, and multi faceted, talented woman who brings so much to the show in terms of collaborating with me, and understanding that there’s a bigger meaning to all of this. And it’s quite a spiritual meaning of finding connection and showcasing that on this stage. But it’s very crucial for us to do that in a way that pays respect to what we’re sharing, and communicating with each other.

Birrimbi Dulgu Bajal features work by 11 Indigenous designers and artists, and 20 Indigenous models. How important is increased Indigenous visibility in the art and fashion spheres? Have you faced many challenges?

I think that there’s lots of challenges that everyone goes through, and I think that the fashion industry is probably one of the most challenging industries you could try to be in. We’re definitely pushing ourselves and breaking new grounds, and I feel like we’re at the beginning of this. It has happened in the past, but it’s been more so the designers going to communities, drawing inspiration. It hasn’t been the artist from the community representing themselves as designers, and showcasing their work. So it’s really about time that that’s happened. And in the show we have a variety of different backgrounds and knowledge, so some people have been in production for a while, and other people are just getting into it. I feel like it’s a platform for the start, and hopefully in the future it will definitely become more mainstream and out there. But at the same time, I think the beauty about it is that it’s not accessible to everyone, because it is so special, and has story behind each design. There’s a hundred and thirty looks in the whole show, which makes up nearly four hundred items and artefacts that we’re travelling with. So it’s a big thing.

How will Birrimbi Dulgu Bajal aim to tell a story through the performance and fashion?

The show is in two sections, so the first section is showcasing designers and their own collections, and their own stories, prints, weaving and beading, and the textiles that they choose – either dyeing or felting. So it’s very textural. And then we have an interval, and this time we’re showing a little bit of a short documentary of the process, so everyone can connect and understand what’s happening. We really want to communicate what we’re doing, so we’ve created a little video just to tell you about what’s happening. You know, some of these girls haven’t been on a plane before. We’ve got four girls from Mornington Island from a little community – there’s a thousand people and one shop – and now they’re here in Melbourne. And so the last section is a space for us to be more creative, and be ourselves, and to really incorporate elements that we wouldn’t showcase in a normal fashion show. We want to be able to show that we can play in those two realms, so it is pushing those boundaries of fashion, art and performance.

What is the future for Indigenous art and fashion?

Like I said before, I think that this is a really new platform of collaboration and celebration, and I think that it’s something that should be nurtured. And therefore we’ve really got to teach the youth about how special it is. For me personally, it reignited my journey of understanding of where I come from. So not to forget about that, and to be able to have the opportunity to connect. I think that it is important that we continue to do things like this, that can engage the youth, so it’s not something that’s lost. I think that’s the problem, because, you know, that’s what happened. It’s what happened to my grandma, and so it’s something that we need to make sure we can continue from, and learn, and share. That’s all, I think.