The Love Affair of Art and Fashion

Susie MacMurray- Widow

Alexander McQueen- Joan

Azra Aksamija- Nomadic Mosque

Hussein Chalayan- Sons of Sonzai Suru

Alicia Framis- 100 Ways to Wear a Flag

Dai Rees- Carapace Triptych The Butchers Window

Lucy Orta- Anticipation Accessories Kits

Dntel ft. Arthur & Yu – “The Distance” from Adam Bizanski on Vimeo.

A video for Bunkaru

For sure we love Lucy Orta and her work. But she has outdone herself with the following exhibition that she co-curated in London. Aware Art Fashion Identity, held at the Royal Academy of Arts in London is a ‘yes! yes,indeed’ exhibition to visit. Combining art and fashion in terms of searching for individual and collective identities, certain characteristics of both art and fashion come out in the surface. Having 30 artists, both emerging and established in the field, the exhibition is at a level of awe. Including artist such as the late Alexander McQueen, Hussein Chalayan, Alicia Framis, Maison Martin Margiela, Grayson Perry, Yoko Ono, Cindy Sherman, Yohji Yamamoto and many more Aware Art Fashion Identity is in a true search for their ID. The combination of best of both worlds Lucy Orta divided the exhibit into four sections. Story-telling; considering the depths of personal and cultural history followed by Building; works including carry on shelters, Belongings and Confronting; that of nationality and politics visualized via fashion, and finally, Performance; the world of fashion and clothing. About the exhibition Lucy Orta, the co-curator who was trained as a fashion designer at Nottingham Trent University later to work as a visual artist explains; “Fashion is an expression of our times and like art it shares the need to reveal and reinvent in continuum.”
So let’s get into who has done what. Alexander McQueen’s work, a tribute to him, is called ‘Joan’ and is a red lace dress covering head from the autumn winter/98 collectionn. Susie MacMurray’s ‘Widow’ is a self explanatory, grandiose dress made with thousands of needles. Situated in the Belongings and Confronting section Azra Akšamija’s ‘Nomandic Mosque’ takes attention. It is an architectural work created with a combo of textile and photographs in order to create an idea of a wearable mosque. Akšamija explains her work; “I realized that representation is central for re-symbolising the contemporary Muslim environments. Hence, I connected art, architecture and fashion into one, and one night, I dreamt about the wearable mosque”. Another very interesting sculpture piece has been admitted by Hussein Chalayan specially for this exhibition. Inspired from the Japanese tradition of Bunraku; -a puppet theater performed by actors on stage in a total black look-Chalayan’s work consists of a white flowing dress and and video installation that is seen on the lifeless models. This interpretation of a 300 year old Japanese tradition says a lot about the all-in-black people who pull the strings on fashion. This exhibition describes how fashion is powerful in a mechanical way, in order to create a collective and personal identity with an unconscious and conscious energy.

Studio Orta News

*GSK Contemporary – Aware: Art Fashion Identity is on display at the Royal Academy of Arts until 30 January 2011.

niente by nil

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