Visual Arts

Anti-Fashion Fashion Show Critiques Consumer Culture

It’s part of Shaking the Tree Theatre’s summer multimedia festival.

Satire by Josh Sin (Josh Sin)

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Shaking the Tree Theatre’s got “Nothing Left to Lose.” That’s the name of the Central Eastside theater company’s second annual summer multimedia festival, two weekends packed with experimental new plays and a yard sale, culminating in the theater company’s 21st birthday party.

Festivities kick off tonight with an anti-fashion fashion show, presented by Josh Sin. It’s the visual artist’s launch of his new brand, “Satire.”

“I really like that word because it’s poking fun, it’s embarrassing, it’s mocking a certain situation,” Sin says. “And what I’m doing for this show is poking fun at the fashion industry, corporate America, what this blind progress toward technology looks like.”

Sin’s visual art often critiques waste and promotes sustainability. It’s an outgrowth of his work with GLEAN, a program in which artists create new work with materials recovered from Portland’s Metro Central Transfer Station—i.e., the dump. At the Satire show, directed by Rebby Yuer Foster, attendees can expect 14 looks walking down the runway, interspersed with commentary and backstory by Sin.

The anti-fashion fashion show is sold out, but anyone is welcome to Shaking the Tree’s first-ever yard sale from noon to 7 pm on Saturday, July 13, in the courtyard at 823 SE Grant St. There will be vendors, snacks and drinks, and props and costumes from past Shaking the Tree productions for sale. Need a twisty head Mermaid Barbie or a fox femur bone? You have come to the right place.

Nothing Left to Lose Multimedia Festival will also debut new theatrical works by Orlando Reyes Cabrera, Pedro Dominguez and Brandt Maina.

GO: Nothing Left to Lose Multimedia Festival at Shaking the Tree Theatre, 823 SE Grant St., shaking-the-tree.com/nothing-left-to-lose-a-multimedia-summer-festival.html. July 12-20. Free–$25.

Rachel Saslow

Rachel Saslow is an arts and culture reporter. Before joining WW, she wrote the Arts Beat column for The Washington Post. She is always down for karaoke night.

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