“An army of lovers shall not fail.” — Rita Mae Brown

Hi Tiger began as a post-punk band in 2009. It’s founder and lead singer now works under the name to transform spaces or “put them in architectural drag” using painting, photography, performance, public programs, sculpture, and video. Lovers Fight Tonight (LFT) was developed in 2021 during a Hi Tiger artist residency in Biddeford, Maine. Although Hi Tiger has always been influenced by fashion, LFT is the artist’s first time fully constructing garments. The collection includes clothing and accessories made with salvaged materials as a way to address the waste epidemic in apparel. Body affirming silhouettes are painted, dyed and sewn by the artist in limited editions.

Hi Tiger spends months experimenting with textiles to understand their different properties. This information is initially unknown because the materials are found or recycled instead of purchased directly from a manufacturer. Design combinations evolve through collector feedback, seasonal needs and creative inspiration. There is a play with materiality that is across mediums…the paintings on found objects, the music made from sampled beats. Creative re-use and recycling is a consistent theme in Hi Tiger’s work, as is the meaning of place and our relationship as humans to the earth, the spaces we inhabit and each other.

Lovers Fight Tonight continues a passion for mission driven projects and public engagement. Only a year into sewing, it also positions it’s founder as a beginner. With coaching by fellow artist, designer and developer Eric Devlin, pioneering dj Soul Slinger of Liquid Sky and others, LFT delivers the 2022/2023 capsule collection featured on the Apparel pages of this site as well as upcoming collaborations with painter Maritza Ranero and illustrator Bodie Chewning.

LFT is a new way of working that simultaneously reflects decades of collaboration, shared community, and of course that photo shoot with the wig as a dress.

• hi tiger

Tools I use in my practice:

Dance music production software and equipment
Photography and video software and equipment
Sewing

Cosmetics, Make-up and apparel styling

LED lighting, video projection
Painting materials (pigment, brushes)
Screen printing materials

Techniques:

Fashion design, architectural and graphic design

Creative reuse
Experimental film and performance, painting

Still and video editing and production
Desktop screen printing
Site specific sculpture and installation

Frameworks:

Post-modernism, Abstract Expressionism, Sociology / Social Discourse, Pan Africanism, Gender identity and performance, Science Fiction, Afro-Futurism