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The Unseen Shadow

Wen Chi Ting

Profile picture of Wen Chi Ting

I have a background in fashion design, working across fashion artefacts, clothing, and material-based practices. My practice is driven by a desire to expand the possibilities of wearing through the combination of diverse materials and an exploration of how objects interact with the body.

Rather than allowing clothing or wearable objects to define a person solely through appearance, I am interested in how intangible experiences—such as memory, emotion, sensation, and lived experience—can be translated into physical form. Through material experimentation and making, I seek to transform these invisible states into wearable artefacts that exist between adornment, protection, and expression.

I have a background in fashion design, working across fashion artefacts, clothing, and material-b...

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The Unseen Shadow explores how fashion artefacts can materialise the long-term emotional and psychological impacts of traumatic memories. Drawing from personal experiences, the project examines how trauma is stored, remembered, and reactivated through the body, the senses, and material engagement. 

The project is relevant in a context where experiences such as sexual harassment are frequently normalised or rendered invisible, while their effects persist over time, shaping bodily perception and emotional memory. By foregrounding these unseen impacts, the work seeks to create space for reflection, recognition, and empathy. 

The final outcomes consist of a series of fashion artefacts made with knitted copper mesh and felted wool. These materials are employed to evoke residual emotional states and embodied gestures that emerge in response to trauma. Through practice-based methods, the project proposes material expression as an alternative, non-verbal mode of communication. 

Final work

  • Image of a head piece made from knitted copper wire and felted wool.
  • Still life photographs of Startled, Cower, and Jitter.
  • This work is composed of knitted metal mesh hand and felted wool.
This head piece is composed of knitted metal mesh hands and felted wool

Jitter

This head piece is composed of knitted metal mesh hands and felted wool and it is the fourth work in the fear-emotion series, expressing how emotions have further enclosed the head, with tension and fear continuing to spread and escalate.

  • This hat is made from knitted copper wire and felted wool.
  • Still life photographs of Viser, Quiver, and Passing.
  • This work is composed of knitted metal and felted wool.
This work is composed of metal-knitted glove and a frame.

Passing

This work is composed of metal-knitted glove and a frame. This piece is the final work in the fear-emotion series, expressing how the emotion gradually departs, while traumatic memories continue to reside within bodily memory.

Research and process

The process of metal wire knitting and the transformation of 3D pattern-making.

Knitting with wire

The process of metal wire knitting and the transformation of 3D pattern-making. 

The process of merging metal mesh wire with felted wool by needle felting.

Needle felting with wire

The process of merging metal mesh wire with felted wool by needle felting.

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The Unseen Shadow

The Unseen Shadow explores how fashion artefacts can materialise the long-term emotional and psychological impacts of traumatic memories. Drawing from personal experiences, the project examines how trauma is stored, remembered, and reactivat...

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