Back in the summer of 2019,
before COVID and X and the rise of SHIEN,
us three girls met working the thrift,
we would price and sort and clean and sift…

Our world today is a lot different from then,
and some of us dream of an Earth we could mend ―
so we built our own planet with items living dead,
and refashioned reality in love with loose threads.

MOTOCECE is a photo series shot in the historic garmet district of Montréal, Canada. It is a love letter to second-hand fashion, a cultural retelling of consumption, and a visual exercise in world-building. The series pushes viewers into a realm of reclamation, and is a strong reflection of us three as artists (and of course, seasoned second-hand scourers…) As such, MOTOCECE innately features only items reimagined and reinvigorated. From an all repurposed set, including fabric scraps and patched mylar sheets, to junk-turned-props, i.e a dusty vacuum tube and depreciated car rim, everything was locally sourced from recycling-coops and trade groups online. In MOTOCECE, the trashiest of trash (a.k.a hard to dispose of materials and electornic waste) act as vibrant infrastructure in a salvage-based society.

At its heart, the series explores themes of retro-futurism and a sort of revisionary nostolgia. While eyes feast on each image, audiences may ask themselves, “Where are we?”; “What year is it?”; And “who is this character (or how is she so stylish?)?” ― MOTOCECE intentionally disorients the viewer, forcing a sense of chaos and confusion throughout the series. Environments may still feel familiar, with distinct Y2K to 90’s and 80’s motifs, but it is ultimately unknown as to if we are in the past, present, or future… on our own planet or another… and if who we meet is friend or foe. The series begins with pop-girl advert-esque imagery next to playful gadgets (the space age hairdryer), but soon transitions into scenes of scaling structures and hostile assembly-lines (the spikey car rim). Our subject surfs the waves of a space-time continuum, and finally settles in post-apocolypic darkness refurbished by pieced-together trash technologies (we call this scene How to Survive the End of the World! brought to you by Fast-Fashion™). In reclaiming the unclaimed, MOTOCECE pressures viewers into a fight or flight response to the trashpocolypse ― join us in a new world where capitalism and consumerism is replaced by philosophies of ingenuity and the renewed.

Stylist and model: Celine Blais - https://celineblais.net/
Set design and props: Angiela Sharon