Skysuit New York. Tokyo. London.
“Skysuit” 2023 - ongoing, is a wearable edition of custom tailored kozo paper suits that utilize cyanotype to index shades of blue across the globe in relation to the atmospheric conditions and geographic location where the exposures are performed. With an innovative approach to cyanotype in this new body of work, Forde explores the politics of identity and migration across global and local contexts. His performance film “Putting On The Sky” shows improvised movements wearing the first sky suit, Skysuit: New York City, as it’s put on in the print studio, performed in the PowerHouse Arts grand hall, then, taken outside, exposed to sunlight filtered through a clear summer sky in a garden on the Gowanus canal. In the second chapter, Skysuit: Tokyo is exposed under a partly cloudy afternoon fall sky in a Tokyo city park as three Japanese dancers respond to and build upon his movements as Forde emerges out of the silk cocoon that blocks sunlight from overexposing the light sensitive suit. The final chapter shows the performance of the wash out process of the Tokyo jacket and trousers on the banks of the Sumida river.
Making their debut in his solo show at Koki Arts gallery Tokyo, viewers encounter portraits of NYC and Tokyo skies, respectively, in the form of wearable paper double breasted jackets and trousers lined with 22k gold leaf, hung casually on the walls of the gallery summoning Joseph Bueys’ Felt suit (1970). Building on this momentum but altering his approach to documenting skylight, Ivan expands upon notions of photography with the third tailor made paper suit. Installed in the group exhibition “Polymythologies” at Tiwani Contemporary’s Cork Street London gallery as site-specific sculpture; Skysuit: London is performed and activated on the most famous street known for men’s tailoring, Savile Row in Mayfair, as a wearable cyanotype, that transforms over the period of the exhibition as a long exposure portrait of London skies. During an artist talk at the gallery Forde was noted saying, “Light is the subject and material truly on display here. My project asks, in what ways can wearable portraits of skies across the world, presented as a group of suited figures gathered in a crowd, help us make sense of contemporary life, migration, and identity? In what ways might this awareness affect global consciousness?”
