What is a studio where old rubbish is being worked on going to smell like?There must be a hint of something unpleasant in Miss Lata`s studio…

I had seen Miss Lata twirlingaround at parties, her long ponytail sprouting out through a small , contorted tomato tinplaced at a rakish angle on topof her head, her handbag a modified"Carbonell" Spanish olive oil can.She`s tiny but you can`t miss her.Shehas the same half closed lids and longeyelashes as the girl swinging on the Carbonell can has, large brown eyesand a heart shaped face framed by a fringe and broad 60`s scarf. Herclothes are green, oprange, purple, afarm in the forgotten province of Teruel where director Luis Bunuel comes from. I had seen her shimmering costumes at the recent Karneval der Kulturen. Made of milk and fruit juice Cartons, turned inside out to reveal their shiny or silvery interiors, they looked like satin. From a distance no one could have suspected their humble origin.But as the carnival dancers moved along, PVC cows, fields and fruit from the usual side of the boxes were hinted at until the suspicion was confirmed: Yes, they are old cartons from the breakfast table - it`s true, all that glitters is not gold.The carnival costumes looked good.But even the hint of the smell of sou rmilk makes me retch. I brace myself as I enter her atelier. A gentle odour greets me. I realise later that it`s wafting from a collection of used,dried teabags that sit in one of her trademarks cans, lined up on the many shelves that stretch up to the ceiling.they toomay be coaxed out of their cocoon one day to become something new and beautiful.Hanging close together on a rail are the costumes. Pieces of bubble wrap, tea lights (a commissioned bridal gown), CD cases and champagne corks poke out. In fullview at the end, is a slinky Cleopatra skirt. When worn, a belt of opened-out cans rests on the hips, the net of bottle tops fixed together hangs down and gleams like precious metal. It took Miss Lata a month to make this

skirt. Every bottle top, and there are over 200, was handled about 8 times.Banged flat, squashed and shinned out in a press, holes drilled through, hole edges softened and flattened, polished, each top bound to the ones around it to create the right shape.

Frida

Kahlo is

Rubbish!

Miss Lata

based her

collection on

the famous

Mexican

artists.

photo by

Dejan Patic

*Miss Lata and Rita Unzurrunzaga are organizing the "RestCycling Art Festival"from June 8, 19.00,all night to June 9, 21.00. More than 40 artists and performers show and sell recycled artwork at RAW-Tempel, Revaler 99, Friedrichshain.

In her studio, the diminutive woman looks more like she should be the model rather than the one hammering,drilling, pressing and contorting the most difficult materials into submission until they fold and bend and curl to become her elegant extravagant costumes. "Everyone says that my clothes, even though they`re made out of rubbish are erotic." Her voice is deep, smoky, with an accent that smoothes the sometimes sharp edges of German. "I don`t plan to make them erotic but they always are!" And she laughs, her ponytail flicking forward. She swishes it back. There is a hint of the forbidden, the "salon", despite her sitting in front of me in dirty overalls.The inside of her kitsch biscuit tin handbags are soft and bright red, making them secret and naughty.Usually Miss Lata makes sure that her costumes are wearable so that the models can move in them. For her amazing collection "The Faces of Frida Kahlo" she used a more metaphorical approach and only metal. "It`s hard, uncomfortable. With metal you`re completely compromised". But "Kahlo`s body was a cage", she explains referring to the Mexican painter`s accident. A metal costume with a corset is inspired by a Kahlo self portrait, "The brokenback": cans, screwed together, bound together as a metaphor for Kahlo`s obstructed life. All the costumes are inspired by her life`s suffering and yearnings: vivid colours here, wings there - she wanted to fly and often dreamt about it, or a tree - she was rooted to the ground. "This woman fascinated me…she was strong, brave,she suffered a lot. Her body had so many problems, her relationship too,but despite that she had so much energy to live." The young Chusa (Lata`sreal name) never planed or dreamt about being an artist. She visited Berlin while the Wall was still up and moved here in 1991. The low cost of living gave her time to discover her talent. It all started with jewellery: I wanted to present my jewellery in a show but couldn`t just let the woman walk along in plastic bags, and so I made big pieces of jewellery -the Cleopatra skirt, is a huge piece of jewellery." She says she didn`t planed stay in Berlin, but somehow she can`t leave. When asked about ultimate plans, her true ambition, she assumes for the first time a quit, puzzled expression. She doesn`t fantasize about dressing Madonna or having a show alongside big name in Paris or Milan, she doesn`t even dream about materials that are beyond her budget of zero. Just know everything about working with rubbish now! "She doesn`t wear anything to do with normal textil. She likes using waste and consumerism provides her with an ex…less supply of materials: "The quality of so many products is so poor that once one tiny part gets broken they are useless and people chuck them out. It`s cheaper to buy things new rather than repair them in this consumption society."As we speak I detect a smell, it`s the undertones of rubbish, or even herbal tea bags. I believe it is approaching sweet smell of success.