Within her most recent body of work, Rose Holtermann has reimagined thrifted materials such as table cloths and curtains as “clothing,” creating a narrative universe that delves into object identity, cultural memory, and the recurring cycles of history.

With tactile sensitivity, Rose explores how objects carry unique backlogs, drawing on the narrative power of both music and fashion as forms of protest and personal agency. Through embedding each piece with references from counterculture, rock ‘n roll and sci-fi, she questions what it means to adopt and uncover identities and explores counterculture as voice for the working class.

Within the work, time travel, as a metaphor, becomes a thematic tool that enables her to traverse history, highlight cultural cycles, and rethink what identity can be across generations. By reassembling materials and styles across timelines, her work acts as a form of what Judith Butler refers to as “serious play,” echoing feminist and queer movements that challenge identity categories and invented hierarchies.

Through an aesthetic merging personal and universal, her pieces speak not only to individual identity but to shared histories and the ongoing cultural struggle for progress.