Diotima Present Its New Summer 2024 Collection: Nine-Night
Luxferity, 12.09.2023
THE MOST WANTED GIFT
OF THE YEAR
The Ritual of Advent
24 products + for Him & Her for $125.00
worth $213.50
The collaboration between Laura Facey and I took form as a sort of exquisite corpse. The work in this collaboration is taken from Laboratory of the Ticking Heart (Ormsby Hall, Kingston Jamaica 1 May - 29 July 2022). Facey’s oeuvre was developed for this show, before we had met. I saw her show and it lingered with me – it had a haunting energy, one that prompted me to reflect, once again, upon the history and legacy of slavery in the Caribbean. We connected online, and she invited me to her studio and place of residence in St. Ann, Jamaica. There, some of the pieces from that show were installed in her home and the “Egg House” on her property. She gave me her pieces and I took them with me to do my part. I turned the chalk drawing Seed (2022), a piece she made in the last weeks before her show, into a print on cotton. I left the entirety of the piece intact, manipulating it loosely around the body. She made miniature versions of her wood-carved hearts for me. I took them and strung them from the body, at the neck, at the abdomen, and hanging from the ear. I returned to her residence with what I had made. She wore them and performed in front of the camera in them, completing the exquisite corpse.
BIO
Through Diotima I seek to present a seductive and nuanced vision of Caribbean style, looking to the future while remaining grounded in history and my lived experience as a Jamaican.
Founded in 2021, Diotima is designed and crafted between Jamaica and New York. Rooted in a reverence for savoir-faire, focus is placed on supporting and amplifying artisanal communities in Jamaica. All our crochet - the foundation of the collection - is made in Jamaica. Tailoring is crafted with Heritage Tweeds from the UK, harkening back to the informal dialogue that was born out of the Jamaican diaspora during the Windrush era, as well as Tropical Wools and Basketweaves from storied Italian mills that reference the traditional crocus bag. In tension with the Tailoring and crochet is hand embellishment and threadwork, always with an emphasis on craft. I advocate for a more expansive definition of luxury, one that is not exclusively centered in Europe.
I use Diotima to widen the definition of sustainability beyond materiality. Sustainability is an approach to making that is not exploitive. As communities in the global south are on the front line of the effects of climate change, efforts must be made to support these communities in a way that fosters their autonomy. At Diotima responsibly produced materials are used, producing only two collections a year, all made to order.
Diotima, unclear whether she was a real or invented figure, teaches Eros to Socrates in Plato’s Symposium. Her love ascends from love of a beautiful being to the highest form which is love of beauty itself. It is through Eros that I seek to build anew.
Rachel Scott, Founder and Creative Director
