Curated by Susan Taber Avila

This exhibition showcases the work of two fashion designers from two of the largest cities in China and their connection to UC Davis. Rongrong Xu and Rui Xu both address the position of the body as an agent between nature and the industrial world. In contrast to the contamination from smog, noise, light, and media driven information in the urban environment, both designers explore how nature can provide a calmness of spirit. Rongrong Xu, Associate Professor of Fashion Design at Shanghai University of Science and Engineering, is currently a visiting scholar in the Dept. of Design at UC Davis. Her new body of work, created with vegetable dyes, natural fibers, and hand embellished surfaces, is inspired by the quiet and temporal journey of clouds. Rui Xu is the Director of the Fashion Dept. in the School of Design at Central Academy of Fine Arts in Beijing. For this exhibition she collaborated with Susan Taber Avila, Professor of Design at UC Davis, using Prof. Avila’s innovative stitched fabrics from repurposed textiles as the creative muse for conceptually provocative garments.