Let’s imagine fashion week. You’re walking into a venue set for a runway show, finding your seat, adjusting your clothes and comfort for the structure of the seat and readying your mind for the grace of the runway. Now let’s imagine the backstage of fashion week. A model is getting her makeup done, putting on the undergarments made special for her look, meditating before she hits the runway and practicing her expression in the mirror. How much of these small details do we remember when the show is over? Despite the hustle and bustle of fashion week, there is an art to those small, forgettable moments. Thanks to the shutter of Landon Nordeman’s camera and his artistic perspective towards fashion moments, we can remember to pay attention. Notorious for capturing visuals in unthinkable places, Nordeman offers a photography book with an elusive view of what happens behind the runways of London, Milan, New York and Paris fashion weeks.

The book, Out of Fashion, drew inspiration from Nordeman’s past photography work with dog pageantry. Who knew that a parallel between a dog show and runway show would ever be drawn? Both entities being full of public adoration and spectacle and both quietly deserving an image of those in-between moments. Of all the fleeting moments that makeup the timeline of fashion week, Raf Simons‘ last Dior show for Spring/Summer 2016 feels like a precious one. The photographer represents this event, along with several others, including an intimate perspective of Grace Coddington’s fiery locks, demanding reflection of our consumption (or overconsumption) of fashion week images.

From the photographers in the press section to the onlookers in the back row, no corner of fashion week goes unnoticed. Elisabeth Biondi, Former New Yorker Visuals Editor, composes the text for the book to delve further into the message within the art of it all. “(Nordeman) truly enjoys the pageantry, the foibles of the style conscious, and the over the top displays of vanity,” Biondi wrote according to i-D Magazine. “They all make up the spectacle for him.”

ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED ON: https://visionaireworld.com/blogs/imported/behind-the-fashion-scene-with-landon-nordeman

Growing up as an African American female in the United States is one of the most rewarding and frustrating experiences. There is a huge sense of pride that comes from understanding the historical oppression of my race. Hardships faced were the gateway to an ambitious community, inspired intellect, rhythmic creations and a peculiar aesthetic. These characteristics are the foundation of our culture as African Americans. They are what makes us, us. With these characteristics come the behaviors and mannerisms that have been developed by our ancestors and continue to progress as our culture does. To see our behaviors adopted by cultures outside of our own can be seen as an embrace, but when that individual only embraces the culture and not the person, there lies an issue.

During the Spring 2016 season of Paris Fashion Week, Valentino presented a beautiful collection that was heavily influenced by the refugees fleeing from Senegal, Nigeria, Eritrea, Mali, Gambia and other African countries. The designers told Vogue that the “message was tolerance” and that “beauty comes out of cross-cultural expression”. This may have been the intended message, however, the result begs to differ. The lack of diversity on Valentino’s runway counteracts this idea of “understanding other cultures”. Out of the 91 models that walked the runway, less than 10 of the models were of African descent. The majority that walked were white. It doesn’t stop there, however. The models all wore cornrows, an ancient hairstyle descending from Africa, appropriating African culture.

The antique component of the cornrow hairstyle is a clear example of how essential hair is in the black community. This year, Amandla Stenberg, Hunger Games star, delivered a crash course on black culture appropriation in a viral video entitled “Don’t Cash Crop On My Cornrows” discussing hair, in particular. Black hair requires specific attention, thereby the creation of hairstyles such as braids, twists, etc. In the video, Stenberg mentions the creation of hip hop music and describes it as an “affirmation of African American identities and voices.” Society has seen such hairstyles on many hip hop and R&B legends, and as their music became popular, black culture did as well. Stenberg revealed images of celebrities wearing cornrows, Miley Cyrus twerking with black models, Katy Perry eating watermelon and using “black slang”, models on the runway showcasing “high fashion” cornrows, and fashion media deeming these ancient hairstyles as a “new urban hairstyle”. The recreation of a hairstyle who’s inception dates back thousands of years shows a lack of originality and blatant disrespect to the originator.

Outside of the physical attributes, stereotypes against black people corrupt the minds of many, especially law enforcement. In today’s society, a black man can’t walk through a neighborhood without looking “suspicious.” Take Trayvon Martin, for example. A 17-year-old boy who walked through a neighborhood on the way to his father’s house. During his walk, he was followed by neighborhood watch captain, George Zimmerman, because he looked “suspicious.” Afterwhile, Zimmerman got out of his car and proceeded to confront Martin even after the police informed Zimmerman not to. Martin reacted like any human would if a random guy followed them around in a normal truck wearing normal clothes, with fear and defense. The confrontation ended with the death of Martin who was shot by Zimmerman. This event took the media by storm and outraged the African American community. Zimmerman was found not guilty of all charges.

This was the verdict that gave birth to the “Black Lives Matter” movement. This was the verdict that made African Americans question the authenticity of those who find black culture to be great, but not the lives of the people from where that culture derives from. It’s moments like this one that cultural exchange should go beyond the aesthetic level. You can’t open your mind to dancing to black music and enjoying the lifestyle and then miss the opportunity to make real progress and change the world for the better. The world has to learn how to engage with the creators of the things that it loves so much.

In today’s society, culture moves quickly. One of the joys of being a part of such a modern society is witnessing the constant exchange of ideas, styles and traditions. In an ideal world, we are all equal. We can adopt whatever behavior we want despite what history may be because we are open to an idea beyond the aesthetic one. We are open to the idea that we are people with our own stories and because of that, we don’t limit or judge based on what we see. It’s not about what you look like, how you wear your hair, what music is in your earbuds. It’s about you. It’s about the soul beneath the body. When the world can agree to that idea, it will be the truest form of cultural exchange.

ORIGINALLY SHOWN ON NEGRO MAGAZINE

What goes through your head when you’re getting dressed in the morning? Is it an intimate and serious decision or a relaxed and carefree one? This notion of clothing and its non-verbal message has inspired several artists–sculptors in particular–to create work that spotlights the story within clothing.

Los Angeles-based artists Anna Sew Hoy is currently exhibiting works like this in an installation entitled Invisible Tattoo. Along with her, we have found 4 other artists that create works which reference the fashion industry, its production process and the materials used. Together they define a new conversation between the garment and its wearer. From the affirmation of a silhouette comes an artistic deconstruction.

Anna Sew Hoy

Throughout her work, Anna Sew Hoy has embodied the comfort and warmth of what wearing clothes feels like. In her new exhibition, Invisible Tattoo, Hoy encourages people to look beyond clothing as a mere tool to cover up your privates. The artist transforms materials to depict bodies and altered environments.

The used materials (denim, electrical wires, mirrors, black tourmaline and steel rings) were manipulated to change their normal function. Denim is sewn together and stuffed with cotton t-shirts to imitate a worm-like figure. The fabric was also used to depict the silhouette of a human body, which features a mirror serving as the face. Electrical wires resemble veins and steel rings work as frames for the sculptures. Emptiness and open space are cleverly used throughout the installation creating a notion of where our foundation lies as human beings.

View Invisible Tattoo at Koenig & Clinton on display until July 29, 2016.

Helmut Lang

It’s been over a decade since Helmut Lang retired from his fashion empire. He shredded 6,000 of his monochromatic, sharp cut and minimalistic runway designs soon after to showcase his new focus towards installation art. The 2011 exhibition entitled “Make It Hard” depicted Lang’s transition from the soft material of fashion design to a new solid direction in creativity. Lang used materials including fabrics, fur, feathers, leather, plastic, hair systems toupee, and metal to create tree-trunk like sculptures that, in some way, have rooted the excellence of his artistic career.

“Burry”, a current exhibition displayed at Dallas Contemporary, is Lang’s reinvention of sheepskin. “Burry,” Lang explained to Vogue “is exploring memories and cover-ups, protection and the simple and opulent side of life forms.” The installation consists of sculptures made of sheepskin painted over in gold, white, and black and dipped in tar. It is displayed until August 21, 2016.

James Viscardi

Stretch is the notion for James Viscardi. What began as an effort to protect his paintings turned into an inventive design venture. The 2015 exhibition, Wash and Fold, featured Viscardi’s personal garments but also reconstructed t-shirts, backpacks and jackets, which ensued a self-portraiture of both the artist’s style and persona. The objects were placed over traditional stretchers that would usually support canvas blurring the line between painting and sculpture. “I consider these very personal works,” Viscardi told artsy.net. “They’re self-portraits derived from my uniform. We dress ourselves the way we want to be seen.”

The frames used appeared unstable pointing fingers at the state of the clothing industry and its means of production. Aside from the inspiration of fashion, this exhibition dialogued the relationship between the internal and external self.

Judith Shea

Having been trained as a fashion designer at Parsons School of Design, it should come as no surprise that this artist uses clothing in her sculptural exploration. First as an abstract form and, later, a replacement for the human presence, Shea established a psychographic element for her figures over the course of her 30-year (and counting) art career. Having not followed a career in fashion, her ability to create a 3D figure is nonetheless attributed to her design lessons at Parsons.

Shea is best known for her series of works in wood and bronze in which she creates empty clothing forms. Her work is currently displayed as part of MOMA PS1’s 40th anniversary celebration entitled “FORTY“. Using the avant-garde designs of Comme De Garcon’s Rei Kawakubo, Shea presents clothing as a sculpture offering a challenging, yet minimal aspect to the exhibition.

Seungmo Park

Korean figurative sculpture artist has astonished the art world with his works that use materials like aluminum wire and fiberglass. In the series “Human“, Park presents a life-size presentation of the human body in all its physical characteristics and details and the beauty that lies in the garment used on the body. He manipulates the aluminum to showcase silhouettes of prominent designers Yves Saint Laurent in realistic positions. Attention to silent details is an ode to both the beauty of design process and sculptural design.

ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED ON: https://visionaireworld.com/blogs/imported/5-artists-turning-fashion-garments-into-sculptures

Making its Hudson homecoming, VisionaireFILM is pleased to present 130919 • A Portrait Of Marina Abramovic, a 3D film by Matthew Placek. The film premiered at Miami Art Basel in 2013, featured at the Sundance Film Festival and numerous other festivals like The Toronto International Film Festival, the film returns to Hudson, its original place of production, being the first of the ongoing body of 3D moving portraits by Placek.

Throughout his work, Placek engages with both subject and viewer in a psychological manner through photography, video and digital art. He strives to immortalize the timeline of his subject in order to maintain and recall the memory of him or her. Like Placek, Abramovic’s work is an engagement with the public. Her performative art has pushed her limits, the boundaries of society, and has transformed the culture of performance art. She began her career in the early 1970s and, through several personal experiences, has cultivated her work to explore the relationship between performer and audiences, the limits of the body, and the possibilities of the mind. She learned early on that art can come from nothing and does not need to be confined to a studio space. One of the her most courageous performances was Rhythm 0 in which she stood as an object, along with other objects such as a pistol, welcoming the amusement and interaction of the public. This essence rings true in Placek’s portrait.

By use of minimal elements, Placek paints a maximum visual on the journey that Abramovic’s physical body has taken her mental strength. The camera pans onto the vulnerability and performative excellence of Abramovic along with the institute’s environment. Viewers are offered an exposed view to both subjects, as Abramovic stands naked and the walls stand unfinished. Placek’s personal relationship with Abramovic is the nature of the film’s beauty and it shows in Abramovic’s performance as she depicts a visual housewarming for what would become her legacy, The Marina Abramovic Institute.

The work is installed in the Second Ward Foundation’s ground floor at 71 North 3rd Street, and will remain until June 26, 2016. Screenings are every 15 minutes by reservation to groups of 4 Thursday – Sunday from 12-6PM and by appointment Monday-Wednesday. The exhibition is free and open to the public.

ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED ON: https://visionaireworld.com/blogs/imported/the-abramovic-institute-s-mental-cues

There was a Hasidic wedding dress submerged in The Dead Sea for three months. As odd as this may sound, it resulted in an artistic merge between the modest style of an ancient religion and the lowest valley on earth. Sigalit Landau, an Israeli artist whose fixation with The Dead Sea has been persistent since 2005, conducted this underwater experiment in 2014 and presents the visual outcome in a new photographic series entitled “Salt Bride“. This series redefines the perspective of what is sometimes seen as a repressed religion’s aesthetic, advancing it to an empowering and hopeful expression.

The black dress used was inspired by the dress worn by the young bride possessed by an evil spirit in the film, The Dybbuk. In the film, the woman falls in love with a man deemed impossible to marry by the constraints of her religion. Driven by frustration, the man she fell in love with resorts to evil forces, which ultimately kill him. His spirit remains as does the woman’s arranged marriage. As a result of his jealousy and disdain, his spirit takes over the woman on her wedding day, turning her gown from white to black, and she ultimately dies as well. Landau extends this story by creating a setting for the last silhouette that the woman was seen in… her wedding gown.

As the black gown rested under the surface, the crystallized salt elements of the sea attached to the netlike weave used to stitched the dress transforming the color of the gown from black to white. This transformation bids a new ending to the film as the garment, formerly associated with death and madness, is refreshed by nature into the wedding dress it was always intended to be.

“Over the years, I learnt more and more about this low and strange place,” Landau said about The Dead Sea. “Still the magic is there waiting for us: new experiments, ideas and understandings.” The impressive and natural magic presented in this experiment discovers an art to the preservation and decay of fashion, character and curiosity. Landau baptized a little black dress enriched with a tragic inspiration into water whose elements provide therapeutic treatments.

ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED ON: https://visionaireworld.com/blogs/imported/sigalit-landau-s-salt-water-sculpture

It takes true courage and tenacity to devote your life to art. For Genesis Breyer P-Orridge, it’s h/er nature. No, that’s not a type-o. P-Orridge prefers this pronoun usage along with s/he and h/erself. P-Orridge’s mindset was well ahead of h/er time. As an artist, musician, occultist, and provocateur, s/he has spent the past four decades breaking boundaries in art, music, and beyond in an unapologetic manner.

“My nature is to be nonconformist,” s/he said in an interview with Andre Bauer in an interview on YouTube. P-Orridge’s question of identity has established h/er as an icon within the culture of avant-garde art. H/er physical body has become a work of art and speaks volumes to h/er lifestyle as an artist. That lifestyle includes love. When s/he met and fell in love with h/er second wife, Jacqueline Breyer also known as “Lady Jaye”, the two created the “Pandrogeny Project” which actually has nothing to do with gender at all, but dictates P-Orridge’s preferred pronouns. The project was the couple’s effort “to break down the limitations of biological sex and express their unconditional love for each other”. Both underwent endless surgical procedures to achieve true resemblance of each other illustrating the merge of two beings becoming one. This self-reinvention is a notoriety in P-Orridge’s career.

Along with h/er body, h/er art and music are radical in nature. P-Orridge’s artistic legacy began with the foundation of COUM Transmissions in 1970. The idea popped into h/er head and s/he took off running with it orchestrating one of the most controversial music groups ever. This was the first known musical endeavor for P-Orridge. Performances were usually improvised and included audience interaction and participation. Much of the music focused on sex, pornography, serial killers and occultism which was well against the norms of the time. This confrontational work gained national press coverage immediately establishing the subject’s P-Orridge would go on to stand for decades to come. Of the many shows that went on, the “Prostitution” show in 1976 at the Institute of Contemporary Arts in London is the most talked about. S/he went on to form Throbbing Gristle and Psychic TV, making h/er one of the most important musicians and performance artists of the seventies. As s/he grew as an artist, s/he was lead to change her birth name, Neil Andrew Megson, to Genesis Breyer P-Orridge inspired by h/er childhood nickname and the meal she consistently ate in grade school.

This past spring, P-Orridge presented the exhibition “Try To Altar Everything” at the Rubin Museum of Art in New York allowing viewers to engage in self-expression and devotion as inspired by the traditions of Nepal and Hindu culture. “The whole point of life is to eventually reunify with our divine self”, she said in an interview. As society continues to evolve and lines of acceptance blur, the past, present and future efforts of Genesis Breyer P-Orridge normalize and immortalize her intimate genius.

ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED ON: https://visionaireworld.com/blogs/imported/the-way-of-the-genesis

Candid, vulnerable and sincere. Frédéric Tcheng delivers a compelling feature-length documentary powerfully merging the prominent French haute couture designer, the revolutionary Christian Dior, with the new to couture Raf Simons who is described by Tcheng as “an uncanny reincarnation of Dior himself.”

Dior and I takes the viewer on an eight-week journey to the runway revealing the creative process, artistic direction and the unknowingly necessary attention to Dior’s heritage-filled atelier.

“It’s understandable that anyone might be reluctant to let a camera crew shadow them relentlessly for three months,” Tcheng said. “But Raf’s concern seemed to run deeper. I sensed that the vulnerability he was showing would become central to the film.”

This vulnerability is what gives the film meaning. Tcheng seemed to sympathize with Simons’ huge new role and the expectation that came with it. It was like watching the new kid at school meet his new classmates when Simons met the members of the atelier. He displayed an apprehensive spirit, but in that eight-week stretch, the viewer will notice just how impactful the creativity of fashion can be as it joined together a phenomenal army to produce an ingenious collection.

Shedding light on the atelier extends the lifetime of Dior. It increases familiarity, which crosses the boundary line that sometimes exists between the glamorous, exclusive side of the fashion industry and the real world.

The character-filled personalities of the atelier, as well as their closeness with one another excellently attributed the film. Tcheng was sure to balance Dior’s and Simons’ role in this documentary as well. The echoes of Dior’s memoir and how well they coincided with Simons’ actions added an eldritch element to the film, along with the atelier’s comments on Dior’s spirit that still feels apparent to them every day.

Simons proves himself to be more than what has been said from the beginning, middle and end of the film revealing one of the most talked about haute couture collections of Spring 2012.

Originally printed in the Academy of Art University newspaper. See digital story here: http://academyartunews.com/newspaper/2015/04/_dior_and_i_the_do.html