Born in France, Loki Dolor is the architect of wearable 3D creations embraced by the likes of Brooke Candy and Hungry, taking inspiration from the natural world to create, ironically, unnatural cyber-spacious, futuristic body adornments.

Dolor admits to favouring a very authentic, uncalculated process when forging their creations, which is almost hard to believe when looking at the absurd 3D pieces, composed of intricate, symmetrical shapes that appear as extensions of the human forms they reside upon, transforming their wearers into human hybrids of Dolor’s making.

In relation to this, Dolor admits they began creating masks ‘to hide behind’, as we can see the wearers become obstructed and obscured behind the extravagance of their creations. Despite Dolor’s aims for their masks and their visual overwhelm, the masks still do not wear their receptacles. The wearers appear strong, empowered and supernatural, like aliens commanding our attention in comparison to the aim of hiding them. Dolor’s creations however, are not limited to these masks. Other pieces include delicate, wiry gloves reminiscent of the intricate veins of a leaf, or small, futuristic wings to be worn around the waist, both of which still seem to transform the wearer into an absurd hybrid from Dolor’s wonderful and wild imagination.

Dolor’s claimed inspirations of ‘mythology, nature and death’ filter through explicitly when observing their work- many pieces feel skeletal in an alternative way to what we would expect, for example small pieces of jewellery worn around the eyes and ears appear inspired by fossils and animal skeletons, yet instead of the apparent morbid connotations, they are entirely beautiful and celebratory of the process of decay and death it seems, presented in unnatural, soft colours and working perfectly with the contours of the face.

To me, it feels as if Dolor’s aim is clear with their work - upon reflection, I feel as if they aim to encourage more risk-taking and authenticity in what it means to be beautiful in our current world, shifting ever-more and inevitably towards a digital, technological future.