ARTIST STATEMENT

Veronica Wakefield Young is a multidimensional artist with a 2D background that informs her bold, colorful, and image-driven work. She has chosen to focus on fashion design as the main expression of her artwork. Her concepts are often based on activism, and research on current issues and historical parallels. She believes fashion is a crucial art form that can be used to transform the wearer, creating a dynamic wearer-viewer relationship that can spark change and conversation. 

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Veronica is passionate about the climate crisis, and the multitude of social justice issues linked to the crisis like environmental racism, labor rights, and Indigenous justice movements which created and are at the forefront of sustainability conversations. Fashion represents the complex and interwoven systems of our world which make it the perfect environment to talk about and create change. Change for fashion can be as simple as silhouettes, or as complicated as soil degeneracy prevention plans and microplastic wastewater treatment. I believe the fashion industry holds enough power in its visual media and the impact of its global industries to truly change the world. 

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Veronica has been deeply inspired by artists like Alexander McQueen, Vivienne Westwood, and Iris Van Herpen who use abject beauty, impeccable craftsmanship, and sexuality to create conversations and spark social change. She is also influenced by  Authors like Valerie Steele, Caroline Evans, and George Bataille's theory of eroticism. She is currently interested in the intersection of eroticism and environmental disaster in fashion.

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