Nada van Dalen: A Strange Twilight Under the Uranium Glass

Nada van Dalen is een sociaal geëngageerde en rebelse ontwerper die altijd op zoek is naar de grenzen in confectiekleding. Haar label werkt niet in seizoenen en heet je welkom in een donkere, hardcore wereld. Een wereld die vanuit haar atelier in Rotterdam via het web gestaag de wereld in sijpelt. Een wereld waarin verliezers, verliezers kunnen zijn. 

Voor Mister Motley maakt ze een online tentoonstelling over bestaan en niet bestaan; over het korte kruispunt tussen leven en dood. Ook wel de tussenruimte, de paar uur voordat ze moeder werd, het moment net voordat het gaat sneeuwen, de laatste paar seconden voor het klaarkomen. Sinds Covid-19 is ze afbeeldingen gaan verzamelen die deze halve staat van zijn vastleggen en die verzameling heeft ze hier gepresenteerd.

I became a mother during the pandemic, a period where death is closer than usual. Together with the fostering of a new generation the reality of life’s ending became increasingly more tolerable. 

When COVID-19 engulfed Earth, life around me grinded to a halt. The world shrank and deepened at the same time. Macro turned micro, with the large movements of the world restricted, daily activities descended into a new level of complexity. Standstill set in and moments froze in time, often capturing the short juncture between life and death, existence and non-existence. 

The moment before something is completely taken over,
The moment you notice that you are starting to understand something,
The moment before you know you’ve got something,
The moment before you came, a few hours before I became a mother,
The moment before it starts snowing,
The moment before you cum.

The moment between two states, when one can catch a glimpse of what is to come and of what has been, the window between two worlds. The beauty of that half-state fascinates me. I am a relentless hoarder by nature, I collect and collect all day long. Since COVID-19 I have begun collecting images that capture the half-state, those collections can be found here.

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Nada van Dalen is a socially engaged rebellious fashion label that is always searching for the boundaries in ready-to-wear.
The label does not work in seasons, but in smaller and bigger collections in different themes.

Welcome to the dark, hardcore world of Nada van Dalen.
A world that is steadily seeping out into the world via the web from her studio in Rotterdam.
A world that is composed of hardcore, hate, death, porn, philosophy and misery.
A world that allows losers to be losers.

“ With my collections I want to show imperfections. I’m not someone who makes herself prettier, instead I take negative traits and appearances and elevate them as beautiful. 
In life happiness should overwhelm you like love and death. These are things that just happen. Life is only comforting when it is full of imperfections and unforeseen twists .

My hometown Dordrecht was an important development for my taste and visual language.
It is the city of misfortune, the city of mullets and the city where the ‘frikandel snack’ was born.”

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