Nilla Heikkilä
(MA)
NATURAL BREEDING MACHINE
This work reflects the resilience and adaptability of women and the female body in conflict with capitalistic demands for labour, throughout history and until today. Under capitalism, the female body has been fetishised for its fragility, exploited for its perceived weakness, punished for its power to seduce, and manipulated for its ability to create labour. The shapes of the garments play with gender identity, body dysmorphia and traditional roles of women, all of which the designer has struggled with.
COLLABORATION
Dancer: Sonjis Laine
Video:Veeti Hautanen; crew: Ida Lindgren, Saana Lyly,
Mina Anttila, Ofiira Ovadia, Vitalij Petuhov
Editing: Noora Ranne
Music: Samuel Sibbald
ADVISORS
Ervin Latimer, Minna Suoniemi
SUPERVISOR
Annamari Vänskä
(IG)
@ nillaheikkila
Natural Breeding Machine tells the story of a woman’s reproductive life. It is a story of society’s expectations and the loss of power over one’s own body. The collection is presented in a film form that is shot in five chapters, starting from adolescence, ending at birth, taking inspiration from body horror. The collection explores the way how, under patriarchy, the female body has been fetishised for its fragility, exploited for its perceived weakness, punished for its power to seduce, and manipulated for its ability to create labour.
– The state of world politics continues to shock me. I am afraid that we are in the wake of a modern witch hunt. We might not be burned at the stake anymore, but our rights and bodies are under constant attack, and the progress seems to have stagnated and is moving backwards. Through my collection, I am taking a stand, a stand for reproductive rights, a stand for human rights.
Inspiration for the techniques used in the collection came from body restrictions and grotesque aesthetics, returning to the body horror film tropes. The body is bound by corset lacings, and the protruding body is created by paddings and bonings, inspired by historical garments that were used to restrict women’s everyday life, re-imagined into a deformed body.
– The aesthetics were inspired by body horror films, specifically the ones with underlying themes of giving birth. I also found a lot of inspiration from the special effects, especially the handmade special effects that we can find in older films, giving an aesthetic of funny and gore mixed together.
