FASHION INSPIRED BY ART

Fashion is art || The industry’s most renowned designers from Yves Saint Laurent and Elsa Schiaparelli to Alexander McQueen and Rodarte have sought inspiration for their collections in the work of artists outside the realm of fashion || Fashion inspired by Art ||

“One should either be a work of art, or wear a work of art”-Oscar Wilde

Alexander McQueen F/W 2008 ||  Aubrey Beardsley The Peacock Skirt, (1892)

Elsca Schiaparelli || Salvador Dali In Voluptas Mors Cabinet, 1951

Temperley London F/W 2013 || Gustav Klimt

Yves Saint Laurent || Mondrian

Dolce andGabbana S/S 2008 || Julian Schnabel

Tracey Reese S/S 2010 || Pierre Bonnard

Elsa Schiaparelli || Jean Cocteau

Rodarte S/S 2012 || Van Gogh

Elie Saab S/S 2010 || Georgia O’Keeffe

CHIHULY GLASS FASHION

Engaging in Daly Chihuly’s out of this world glass creations through fashion in 100ºF Miami summer. Chihuly shattered the conventions of glass, turning it into a sculptural, abstract art form, spearheading the rise of avant-garde glass art.

The who… Daly Chihuhy: American glass architect/sculptor. In 1965 he enrolled in the first glass program in the country and later went onto study at RISD where he established its own glass program a decade later. Then he won a Fulbright and went to work at the Venini glass factory in venice. Founded Pilchick Glass School in Washington State, and is a leading figure in the avant-garde glass movement and known for his collaborative approach to his art. Chihuly shows everywhere and is a big deal in the art world.

“I can’t understand it when people say they don’t like a particular color. . . . How on earth can you not like a colour? Dale Chihuly

“One can only wonder what kind of genius thought of blowing human breath down a metal tube, forming a bubble inside a molten blob of glass. And to think that this molten blob of glass is made only of silica or sand, the most common material in the world, that can be transformed from a solid to a liquid to a solid just from fire. For me it’s the most mysterious and magical of all the inventions or materials that mankind has invented or discovered.” Dale Chihuly

“Glass is the most magical of all materials. It transmits light in a special way.” Dale Chihuly

Salvador Dalí Fashion

Fashion is Art Inspiration: Dalí + VOGUE

Before the days of endless grinning celebrity head shots, the illustrious Vogue magazine featured its more art sensitive side with a series of covers designed by Salvador Dalí.

Today, Dalí is considered the father of surrealism and god-father of one of the wonkiest mustache styles in facial hair history. In reality, Dalí held a Jeff Koons-esque status as a member of the fashion and art world’s most desired circle and the golden boy of all art-lice social climbers. Running in the ranks of Basquiat, Alice Cooper, Hitchcock and Andy Warhol, designing for the covers of Vogue (with his face even gracing the cover of its Paris edition) is a logical suite.

Philippe Pareno: Somewhere out of this world

What happens when French artist and filmaker Philipe Parreno is given a carte blanche to take over the entirety of the Palais Tokyo’s 22,000 square metered industrial-warehouse of a labyrinth exhibition space? A strange sensory out of body experience to precisely Anywhere, Anywhere Out of the World, the eponymous name of his latest exhibition in Paris.

Parreno’s playground of an exhibition–a comprehensive survey of his work–was just as much dialogue with the architecture of the space itself as with its curatorial fillings. The exhibition was his medium, an art object in its own right. 

The spectral presence of flickering film montages and incorporeally disjointed sounds guided the viewers through the maze of rooms that shifted in and out of blackness and disorienting light; manipulating and reshaping the participant’s perception of space and reality. What Parreno created was a sensorially encompassing surrealist experience which awaken feelings of the uncanny, confusion, discomfort, and wonder.

As his works become animated–piano’s played by invisible hands, lights and videos flashing with an epileptic unrest–the space is rendered a living organism, expanding and changing with every breath and turn. Parreno has conjured up an automaton from the very exhibition itself.

The magic of Parreno is that his creations ask us to transcend our world and enter into a starkly shadowed realm where he is god; leaving the viewer to feel reduced to a puppet–one who is often lost to the intentions of the master–in some surrealist, fun-house theatre. But in Parreno’s world, the puppet is rendered automaton much like the whole of the exhibition itself. 

The secret to his enigmatic universe is tied to the twin words within the title: “Anywhere.” And herein lies the beauty of Parreno’s creations: they allow our minds to wander Anywhere Out Of The World.

REVEALING FASHION’S DORIAN GRAY

What happens when German street artist Vermibus takes on the fashion industry’s troubling ideals of beauty in his recent series “Dissolving Europe“?
A disturbing, nightmarish and an ironic dehumanization of something already debased by the stroke of a virtual photoshop brush.

In this case, a translucent swipe of real-world paint does not cover beauty, but instead reveals a deeper layer, one that is often shadowed by the industry’s imposing of a culture-wide physical inferiority complex to drive consumerism.

Through the act of defacing, Vermibus reveals this disturbing truth about the industry itself, an act made even more potent by exhibiting his work in illicit galleries, that is, on subway walls and on bus stops where his ad portraits hang. In an act of ironic inversion, he essentially transcends the subliminally conspicuous advertising spaces.

His goal is not simply to exact a commentary on his personal views of the beauty-dictating advertising industry, but to recover the space of the viewer from consumerism and transforming it into a cultural space.

The very fact that his creations will inevitably be covered up and erased is part of the overall effect. The fleeting nature of his works by way of censorship will turn the space back into an area of consumption once again.

The cycle is repeated.

The space is returned to its “normal” state.

Everything is consumed. Eaten by itself.

We live in a culture of encouraged obesity wherein the monetary driving point is the perfectly proportioned image of the photo-shopped human ideal.

Photos via Vermibus.com

PAPER DREAMS OF AYUMI SHIBATA

Imagine a world of fairytales come to life, of nature spirits, and enchanted forests. Cities illuminated by Moroccan stars and the glow of Parisian street lamps. Worlds so small they can fit inside a bell jar or notebook and others so large you can get lost inside. And what if we were to tell you these worlds were cut out of paper? Magic born from the blank pages of a book and woven from the purest of imaginations. Japanese artist Ayumi Shibata is the weaver of such worlds. She cuts from paper the most intricate miniature creations to immersive, life-sized installations. With her distinctly Japanese aesthetic and inspirations from “kami” spirits that reside in all living things, she breathes magical life into everything her knife touches. Writers and authors across time would agree that there is nothing more intimidating than a blank page, but for Ayumi, white paper is a portal into a world of dreams as endless as the imagination.

Origin Story…
“Because my mother is a quilt and patchwork maker, I started to play with needles, string and left over fabrics in her atelier shop and at home when I was a child. That is the foundation of my art. When I was a teenager, I got into music. I sang and wrote songs. Music was the way that I expressed myself at that time. When I moved to New York, I started to make art pieces by paper and taking a stained glass workshop. I enrolled in the Printmaking and Sculpture, Mixed media department for four years in the National Academy School in New York under Maurizio Pellegrin and Kathy Caraccio. During that time in NY, I had several group shows and two solo shows in soho,NY and Omote-sando, Tokyo. In 2015, I moved to Paris.”

On “Kami” Spirits…
“Kami” is the Japanese word that means god, divinity, or spirit, and it also means “paper.” In Japanese worship and in my religion of Shinto, invisible “Kami” spirits dwell in various objects and events, places, as well as in our houses and in our bodies. Ya-o-yorozu no kami, (which literally means eight millions of spirits, uncountably many spirits) who live together all around in Japan.”Kami”are connected to nature. They move freely beyond time and the universe. Also “Kami” dwell in paper. In the religion of Shinto, paper is considered a sacred material. I cut paper to express my thankfulness to the “Kami” spirits for having been born in this life. Each cut, each page is a prayer. My process helps me to be quiet and clear my mind in meditation or prayer. I purify my soul through the act of cutting paper. By interacting with the “Kami” spirit material, I can connect to this spirit world with our own.”

On Relativity…
“Everything in life is relative. When ants walk next to sky scrapers, they never realize what they are walking next to. When compared to a daisy, a sunflower appears to be giant, but when it lies amongst the old oak trees, it appears small and inconsequential. In the same way, scale and proportion are important to the viewers relationship and viewing experience. Large works of art invite the viewer to be swallowed by the visual world they are engaging with. Small art works keep the viewer in the position of an outside observer. We observe small works as if looking through a key hole into another world; constantly aware of our outsider status.”

Inspirations…
“I like to watch the lectures about theoretical physics and cosmology, I imagine myself traveling in another dimension or world. As I cut out each page by page, I create the multiple dimensions in my work. I am currently reading a book called ‘Le Citta Invisible” by Italo Calvino, and I imagine that I am traveling through cities in another world.”

On Paris and Identity…
“My experience in Paris has given me the opportunity to exchange and digest the variety of ways of thinking. spending my time in different cultures and customs expands my identity every day. Understanding others will help me to know more about myself. Spending time in different cultures, helps to remind me of my identity as Japanese.”

On Paper Secrets…
“Paper has personality, like humans. I communicate with it. It is important for me to understand the personality of each piece of paper. For example, the way the light effects it, the effects of the darkness, the thickness, the strength, how the humidity interacts with it, and what is it made of. I choose the paper for each project by considering its personality.”

Lost Art of Pantin

How fine is the line between art and vandalism? At the very least, the line that divides graffiti and “higher” art forms is non-existent. Street art is a form of self-expression, and just because the surface of choice is the side of buildings, walls and deep subway tunnels does not make it any less reputable than the art of the canvas variety. This view is becoming ever more accepted by the general public with the growing celebrity of street artists such as Banksy, Invader, Swoon and Iz the Wiz just to name a few.

There is a deep vein of self-declaration in placing one’s art, and quite often, one’s signature, on such public structures. Perhaps it is an act fueled by mortality, a desire to be remembered amongst the nameless masses, or rather a rebellion against predicated art “standards.” Talk to most street artists and they will tell you that it is a way of life; an entire culture and attitude born from the desire to have fun and express oneself. In no other art form does such a fascinating variance exist to such an extent. The artist has no control over what happens to his work after leaving the scene of the art-crime. It will likely be destroyed or painted over. It is an art forever and for the moment.

Pantin was an old abandoned warehouse (now demolished) in some forgotten outskirt of Paris. Every inch of the ten-story building–every window of which had been shattered–was covered in graffiti from countless different street artists from over the years.

This site houses the striking work of street artist Itvan Kebadian. His stark, black and white portraits depict a post-apocalyptic world crippled by darkness and pain, one inhabited by the shadows of faceless wanderers. His creations embody some melancholic form of the uncanny in their haunting and deeply seductive nature.

The concrete walls surrounding the abandoned warehouse had been painted over with markings, strange creatures, signatures and portraits of the imagined anonymous. Spray paint bottles had been cemented into the ground, littered with food wrappers, bottles and forgotten bits of clothing.

Normally, remnants of this sort would be viewed on the side of junk, but perhaps in light of the imminent destruction of the site and the notion that in just a few days, these beautiful tableaus would be reduced to rubble, it all seemed rather nostalgic. What would be considered garbage took the form of impressions of the artists that had once come here, alone, in groups, leaving their marks for all or no one to see.

FROM ART TO FASHION: JESUS RAFAEL SOTO

Jesus Rafael Soto. Galerie Perrotin. Paris. From Art to Fashion Inspiration. Experiment #1

Not everyone agrees that fashion is art… it all depends on your definition of “art” after all–and fashion for that matter–and that’s messy ground to enter upon…but bridging the gap between fashion and art always leads to good things. Fashion has been inspired by art since the first runways, and done so in subtle nods to those designers’ most admired artists.

So in an homage to fashion and art and all that falls in between, this series illustrates the potential of merging these two worlds in my paying tribute to artists I love and admire. I translated the optical illusion sculptural creations of kinetic artist Jesus Rafael Soto into the language of fabrics. In this first edition, I have transferred his 3D sculptures (his sculptures are a 3 dimensional interpretation of his earlier 2 dimensional paintings) back into the 2D and onto the blank canvas of white cotton clothes using fabric paints.

“… In order to achieve abstraction, I thought it was important to find a graphic system that would allow me to codify a reality rather than represent it.”– Jesus Rafael Soto

“For me, Cubism was an exercise in construction, in the ordering a planes, a tool that helped me to translate the tropical light.”– Jesus Rafael Soto

IMAGINARY INTERVIEW WITH GUSTAV KLIMT

Gustav Klimt ionised the female body and devoted his art to its representation, embellishing it in gold, depicting the breath of a woman’s love. The madonna and child, the enveloping embrace between a woman and her lover… a golden tear spilling onto a rose-flushed cheek… An homage to his work and a look beyond the veneer of gold in this imagined interview with Gustav Klimt derived from his own words…

An imaginary interview with Gustav Klimt…

Who are you?

Whoever wants to know something about me – as an artist which alone is significant – they should look attentively at my pictures and there seek to recognise what I am and what I want.

What do you want?

Truth is like fire; to tell the truth means to glow and burn

What is art to you?

All art is erotic…

How do you paint?

There is nothing that special to see when looking at me. I’m a painter who paints day in day out, from morning till evening – figure pictures and landscapes, more rarely portraits.

Where do you paint?

If the weather is good I go into the nearby wood – there I am painting a small beech forest (in the sun) with a few conifers mixed in. This takes until 8 ‘o clock.

After tea it’s back to painting – a large poplar at dusk with a gathering storm. From time to time instead of this evening painting session I go bowling in one of the neighbouring villages, but not very often.

What else do you do to relax?

True relaxation, which would do me the world of good, does not exist for me.

So are you always painting?

Today I want to start working again in earnest – I’m looking forward to it because doing nothing does become rather boring after a while.

Interesting how your portraits have become your best known work… Have you ever painted yourself?

There is no self-portrait of me. There is nothing that special to see when looking at me…

Your limitations?

I have the gift of neither the spoken nor the written word, especially if I have to say something about myself or my work. Whoever wants to know something about me -as an artist, the only notable thing- ought to look carefully at my pictures and try and see in them what I am and what I want to do.

What do you feel when faced with writing?

Even when I have to write a simple letter I’m scared stiff as if faced with looming seasickness.

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