Fordlandia

Fashion Space Gallery, located at London College of Fashion, University of the Arts London is presents Fordlandia, an exhibition of work by Studio Swine.

Fordlândia was built in the wilderness of the Amazon by American industrialist Henry Ford in the late 1920’s to secure a supply of rubber for his car empire.

Ford set out to create his ideal American plantation complete with rows of houses, straight roads, schools and hospitals for his workers. A strict nine to five work schedule, uniforms and leisure activities such as regular square dances were enforced on the indigenous workers. However, these attempts to organise and tame the rainforest soon began to show cracks. As early as 1930, his labourers staged the first of many revolts against the strict behavioural controls imposed. Ford’s attempts to outwit the rubber tree’s natural predators also did not go as well as planned. Ultimately, Fordlândia was sold back to the Brazilian government in 1945 and left to decay.

Inspired by the tropical ghost town, this project by Studio Swine imagines a world where Fordlandia is a success, where nature and industry have entered a symbiotic relationship to create sustainably and beautifully.

The project will feature a collection of furniture and products which use natural rubber and other materials from the forest and reference the Brazilian tropical modernist movement.

Studio Swine have also collaborated with LCF MA Menswear alumni Emma Fenton Villar and BA Textile student Erica Weide in creating three denim workwear jackets and a denim wall-hanging and a textile screen respectively.

An especially commissioned film that charts Studio Swine’s research process – from visiting Ebonite factories to the abandoned town in the Brazilian rainforest itself – will be shown in the space. Together the pieces will create an imagined domestic environment in the gallery.