Mercury Fur

Philip Ridley

Design Concept: In Philip Ridley’s Mercury Fur, memories become a rare and valuable commodity. Halucenegetic, highly addictive butterflies have become a drug epidemic. One primary side effect is memory loss. As a result, a special reverence is given to the recounting of remembered memories, almost taking the place of theatrical entertainment. The limits of one’s memory is a huge sociological factor. It determines the limits of one’s abilities and thus determines social standing, and connections made between characters. I visually represented this in the costuming by designing the characters who have a more powerful memory and grip on reality with more unified, structured garments; and characters who have little to no memory, or sense of reality, with chaotic, dilapidated ones.

Medium: Watercolor, felt-tip pen