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Manuela Klerkx
Between art and fashion
Between art and fashion: from Martin Margiela to Tenant of Culture
I have always been fascinated by the question of where art ends and fashion begins and vice versa. Somehow, the creativity of a fashion designer seems to be more akin to that of an artist than, say, an industrial designer or an architect. The way of posing questions, the spatial insights, the feeling for materials and dimensions, it is just slightly different with fashion designers and artists. The fashion world, as we know, is under a magnifying glass because, after the oil industry, it is the most wasteful and polluting industry in the world. That must and will change, but the love for the garment as an expression of creativity and identity will always remain. For this collection I discuss the work of a number of artists and their relationship to fashion.
I have always been fascinated by the question of where art ends and fashion begins and vice versa. Somehow, the creativity of a fashion designer seems to be more akin to that of an artist than, say, an industrial designer or an architect. The way of posing questions, the spatial insights, the feeling for materials and dimensions, it is just slightly different with fashion designers and artists. The fashion world, as we know, is under a magnifying glass because, after the oil industry, it is the most wasteful and polluting industry in the world. That must and will change, but the love for the garment as an expression of creativity and identity will always remain. For this collection I discuss the work of a number of artists and their relationship to fashion.
Peter Lindbergh
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In the nineties there was a real hype surrounding modelling world. Suddenly everyone knew models like Cindy Crawford, Claudia Schiffer, Naomi Campbell and Kate Moss by name. Models were no longer anonymous but determined the face of campaigns for fashion houses like Versace, Chanel, Calvin Klein, Dior and Dolce & Gabbana, who paid astronomical sums for their looks and walks. The relationship between model and photographer also changed. Peter Lindbergh is a good example of this. He introduced a form of new realism by redefining the concept of beauty. He no longer wanted to portray the woman as an adorable lady dressed in impossible haute-couture robes, but as authentic persons, inspired by German Cinema and German Cabaret. Through his memorable cinematographic images, often in black and white, Lindbergh changed the image of women, and not just in fashion and art.
(Geukens & De Vil)
(Geukens & De Vil)
Cléo Totti
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Redefining the standards not only characterizes Martin Margiela’s work, but that of Flemish multidisciplinary artist Cléo Totti (1989). Concepts such as changeability and gender fluidity are central to her. She loathes the beauty canons that are imposed and perpetuated by gender-specific women's magazines in particular. Her models are androgynous to eliminate gender difference and its social consequences. Parts of the human body return as carriers of mini sculptures (jewelry) or textile works (foulards). But the same parts can be independent images, just as the textile works can hang on the wall as paintings and the mini sculptures can be approached as autonomous objects. The boundary between materials and disciplines is just as fluid as the one between man and woman in Cléo Totti's hybrid work.
(Galerie EL)
(Galerie EL)
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Like his husband Walter van Beirendonck, Dirk Van Saene belonged to the Antwerp Six together with Dirk Bikkembergs, Ann Demeulemeester, Dries Van Noten and Marina Yee. This group of Belgian fashion designers graduated from the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Antwerp in the 1980s. They made their international breakthrough in the mid-1980s, which resulted in greater attention for Flemish fashion. Saene loves French haute couture and style, which is reflected in his meticulously crafted, sartorial creations. In his first solo exhibition as an artist with Sofie Van de Velde in Antwerp, he shows models, not as wearers of clothing, but as autonomous figures with their own character and appearance. With Van Saene, the artist and fashion designer do not differ much insofar as he seeks out and expresses feelings of tragedy or drama in both disciplines. He wants to portray magnified emotions of tragedy and reflection, so that his models, like the dancers in Pina Bausch's choreography, are introverted and lack any form of contact and interaction with each other. Tradition and contemporaneity intertwine in Van Saene’s work, as does his role as a fashion designer and artist.
Dirk Van Saene
(Gallery Sofie van de Velde)
While I do find the relationship between ‘designer’ and ‘artist’ interesting,
I don’t want to dissect my own work too much”, he says.
“I wouldn’t call these sculptures pure works of art, but that is not the point either.
It's not about what they are, but what they do.
I don’t want to dissect my own work too much”, he says.
“I wouldn’t call these sculptures pure works of art, but that is not the point either.
It's not about what they are, but what they do.
Dirk Van Saene
(Gallery Sofie van de Velde)
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The Japanese artist Hideki Iinuma chisels his female bodies out of wood. Or rather, his women look like fashion icons who seem to walk straight from a tree: confident, earthy and - most of the time - sexy. They do not seem to correspond in any way to the prevailing traditional image of the woman who - even after studying at university - is expected to devote herself to a 'career' as a wife and mother. That’s not the case with Iinuma though. His women are free-spirited and live life to the fullest. Their contemporary character is a nice contrast to the ancient Ichiboku-Zukuri technique - a technique in which a wooden statue is carved from a single piece of wood, without using the core of the trunk - that was common in Japan until the 10th century and that Iinuma has restored. He combines this technique with a special surface treatment that leaves the traces of the grain visible under a thick layer of paint. Iinuma's sculptures respond to their own 'fashion aesthetic' that is at odds with the Roman ideal of divine beauty in the sculpted, perfect male body. His women are by no means dolls but individuals - literally and figuratively - 'in one piece'. Just as convincing as the wood-carved characters of the German artist Stephan Balkenhol, but less coarsely chopped and of greater vulnerability.
(Marian Cramer Projects)
(Marian Cramer Projects)
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‘Fashion is often a masked way to show where your heart is', according to ToC.
A growing group of people is aware of the threat climate change poses,
yet an individual simply does not succeed in acting effectively according to this
consciousness: to fly less, eat less meat, and buy less clothing.”*
A growing group of people is aware of the threat climate change poses,
yet an individual simply does not succeed in acting effectively according to this
consciousness: to fly less, eat less meat, and buy less clothing.”*
Dutch artist Hendrickje Schimmel (1990) is the brain behind Tenant of Culture. Using largely the same techniques as Martin Margiela (disassembling and assembling existing garments), Tenant of Culture investigates processes of destruction and transformation in all aspects of the clothing ecosystem: from production to marketing, from social relations to waste. In her practice, fashion cast-offs turn into objects to put down or hang on the wall. In the difference between Margiela and Tenant of Culture you can feel how the urgency of themes such as climate change, sustainability, exploitation, identity, etc. has increased between the late eighties and now. Tenant focuses on the contradiction between fashion and morality. Hence her activist attitude towards the capitalist consumer society, which encourages the fashion industry to produce new products and the consumer to buy new items. Her answer to this, in her view, reprehensible mentality is that of a post-producer or rag-picker:
The design starts with the residual material and from there arises something to wear,
or maybe not even a sculpture. The cut of the clothing is completely determined by
what she accidentally encounters or collects as rags-turnip star. Due to this total reversal in
the design and manufacturing process, there can be no fashionable trend that colours and
silhouette dictates for the coming season.
If her method is nevertheless followed,
all the better!'**
or maybe not even a sculpture. The cut of the clothing is completely determined by
what she accidentally encounters or collects as rags-turnip star. Due to this total reversal in
the design and manufacturing process, there can be no fashionable trend that colours and
silhouette dictates for the coming season.
If her method is nevertheless followed,
all the better!'**
All the better, indeed. Now that Margiela is back, in the guise of an artist with gallery representation, the line between fashion and art has become even more blurred. A beautiful milestone that promises a bright future.
(Fons Welters)
* https://www.lofficielusa.com/fashion/10-rare-facts-about-martin-margiela
** https://www.hannehagenaars.nl/portfolio/artikelen/tenant-of-culture-alles-wat-kapot-is-zou-je-kunnen-herstellen