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The Perfect Specimen: Read Our Interview of Lauren Lee McCarthy On Her Exhibition "Bodily Autonomy" @ Mandeville Art Gallery In San Diego →
Installation view, Lauren Lee McCarthy: Bodily Autonomy at UC San Diego Mandeville Art Gallery. March 2-May 25, 2024. Photo by Pablo Mason. With support from Creative Capital.
When asked to read through a long list of terms and conditions before giving consent, most of us have developed a reflexive response of scrolling to the bottom and trudging ahead. There’s a miniature risk/benefit analysis that we all conduct, which includes a completely unknown potential risk in the distant future, and the near future benefit of moving on. Time is such a valuable commodity that we regularly find ourselves sharing everything from personal data, browsing data, biometric data, and more. Oftentimes, there’s no contract at all. You may have thought you were showing all of your friends how your looks changed from 2009 to 2019, but you were really training someone’s private surveillance software. The list of myopic, nefarious applications that we serve by giving ourselves away to faceless data farms in exchange for what often amounts to a forgettable laugh is endless. In Lauren Lee McCarthy’s Bodily Autonomy exhibition at UC San Diego’s Mandeville Art Gallery, she explores two very specific aspects of the way that we engage with science and technology. With “Surrogate,” she created an application where couples and individuals who are interested in hiring her as a surrogate mother are invited to dictate everything from her eating and sleeping habits, to her daily activities, and more. While these requests are not actually fulfilled, the application itself challenges notions of reproduction, genetic selection, and commerce. With “Saliva” she has created a saliva exchange station that is activated every Thursday from 6-8pm where visitors are invited to give and receive samples of their own saliva. Each participant is given agency to label their sample as they prefer and they provide the conditions for what happens to it (scout’s honor). Doreen A. Ríos, a PhD candidate in Art History, Theory, and Criticism at UC San Diego and an independent curator and researcher, spoke with McCarthy to discuss the implications of these technologies and the imperative within the work to embody a more transparent form of participation. Read more.
Louis Vuitton's Spring 2024 Men's Capsule Collection Is A Fusion of Visions
creative direction by Tyler, the Creator and Pharrell Williams
Louis Vuitton’s iconic imagery is a staple in the fashion world, unique and identifiable amidst the ever-changing tides of trends. Despite this classic style that cements the brand’s singular voice, their ability to evolve and innovate that image is constant. The 2024 Men’s Capsule Collection displays this innovation while still staying true to the brand’s face by staging an instinctive union between the visual universes, combining the distinctive artistic voices of the Menswear Creative Director Pharrell Williams with long time friend of him and the brand, Tyler, the Creator. Fusing the signature preppy sophistication popularized by the artist with the elegant dandy dressing established by Pharrell Williams at the Maison, it evokes the brand’s common palette of earthy creams and browns, as well as muted yet still vibrant blues and greens to support the pops of bright color that bring the air of spring into this lineup. The emblem of the collection being a craggy monogram, hand-drawn by the artist himself. Throughout the collection you can feel the creative collaboration take place and see the marriage of these two’s strong visions come together.
Izumi Kato's Not-Quite-Human Figures Are Apparitions of Coexistence in Perrotin's Inaugural Los Angeles Show
#6
Untitled, 2023
Photo by Kei Okano
Courtesy of the artist and Perrotin ©2023 Izumi Kato
Perrotin inaugurates their new Los Angeles location with an exhibition of work by Japanese artist Izumi Kato.
Imagine, for a moment, that Izumi Kato’s figurative subjects have a life of their own. From the artist’s studio in Tokyo, his subjects have traversed the ocean, crossing the Pacific to emerge in Los Angeles. Making their way to Pico Boulevard, they appear utterly at home in Southern California—a place where one can encounter the extremes of both prehistoric geology and urban modernity, where tar pits coexist with gleaming new buildings, where eternal ocean cliffs abut concrete highway. These binaries of ancient and modern, geological and man-made, are dualities that also coexist in Kato’s work, making his exhibition a fitting choice for Perrotin’s inaugural exhibition in Los Angeles.
Izumi Kato’s exhibition is on view through March 23 @ Perrotin in Los Angeles, 5036 W. Pico Boulevard
Miu Miu's Fall/Winter 2024 Collection Traces Life From Girlhood to Womanhood
The Miu Miu Fall/Winter 2024 collection by Miuccia Prada draws inspiration from the span and scope of people’s lives, its shifting clothing types reflective of the development of character, both personal and universal to form a vocabulary of clothing, from childhood to adulthood.
Concurrent gestures express different moments in life — they coexist within single outfits, just as we each hold simultaneous memories of our own experience. Evocations of childhood are expressed with deliberately shrunken proportions, cropped sleeves, and round-toed shoes; archetypical clothing types that directly recall those worn in youth. Childhood is a moment of impulsive, natural rebellion, here reflected in the liberation of a dichotomous mixing of different codifications of dress, pajamas with outerwear, proper with improper, right with wrong. By contrast, adulthood is expressed through recognized signifiers of propriety and chic — gloves and handbags, brooches, tailoring, the little black dress. Like mnemonic devices, clothes can make us both think back, and project forwards.
Those components of duality and recollection find counterparts in materials and construction. Bonding and fusing meld together different fabrics and combine disparate garments, sweaters and cardigans in silk and cashmere, poplin skirts with knit, while shearling is treated to mimic precious fur. Silk dresses are creased and molded to cotton jersey sheaths, volumes reduced with the impression of the original garment remaining, a trace of its antecedent.
As the collection reconsiders characteristic signifiers of life through the vocabulary of clothing, so our literal vocabulary can be readdressed. Girlishness is a word we can revalue, from a pejorative gendered noun, anchored to age, to a universal idiom expressive of the strength of rebellion, a spirit of freedom and individuality, one attribute of a richer whole. Perceived as an inherent component of Miu Miu, it should be examined not as a lone trait but as a fundamental aspect of a wider temperament — a notion expressed through a cast of personalities who each embody this ever-shifting Miu Miu persona. They include Dara Allen, Ethel Cain, Guillaume Diop, Luther Ford, Angel Hazody, Kristin Scott Thoe, Qin Huilan, Little Simz, Jasmin Savoy Brown and Ángela Molina, who also features in Miu Miu Women’s Tales.
Contemporaneity allows divergent creative processes to arrive at paradoxically correlated results. The Palais d’Iéna is punctuated by video installations created by the Belgian-American artist Cécile B. Evans, art considered as a tool to enrich and expand conversation around people. Conceived independently of the collection, by chance the notions of the survival of memory in their art finds echo within the clothes. This is a shared language, one informed by the moment we all live within, a universal message nevertheless resonant with our unique experience.
Ready When Worn: the Avant-Première of MM6 Maison Margiela AW24
For the Avant premiere of AW24, MM6 explores the liminal state of a silhouette morphing between urban cool and couture refinement. Looks hover in limbo. Elegance with wit, puns and double entendres. Clothes that aren’t ready-to-wear: they’re ready when worn, molding to the character of the wearer. Oblique references to Man Ray bring an undercurrent of bohemian elegance, evoking artists, celebrities, friends, lovers and other singular types who move through life like it’s a work of art. Characters inhabiting an uncannily parallel world, with unexpected textures, raw finishes and, of course, white paint.
The familiar skews obscure as staples and archival garments adopt new attitudes, blending minimalism with maximalism on vintage-leaning pieces and riffing on classic masculine codes of dress, with cleverly placed darts reconfiguring silhouettes and tailoring language extended to pieces considered outside the traditional tailoring realm.
Pockets come to the fore as functional, multiple, exaggerated emblems of utility, with asymmetrical placements creating critical distance from the usual technical sportswear tropes.
For night, a bedding theme plays out in Lycra bodysuits and dresses in an allover trompe l’oeil quilt print as well as on a pink t-shirt with a flocked Party Bear motif lifted from an old kids’ duvet. True to MM6 codes, humble materials become ornamental: the lining of a black dress is pulled out, twisted and looped around the neck to create intriguing yet elegant volumes. Waistbands are flipped to create couture-like tulip hem effects, and tops are slashed with zips, sexing up something quite mundane. Roughly hewn “replacement” panels on pants suggest customization as hard-loved, well-worn clothing, like sun-bleached ribbed knits and ultra-wrinkled stonewashed denim, take on a new personality. A white cotton shirt, biker jacket and trench coat are gutted and reconstructed with all the details flattened out, their open collars and cuffs sewn into place permanently.
As if lifted from a construction site, a bucket and a rubble sack join the MM6 accessories universe as a molded EVA bucket bag and a tote. Footwear additions include a cream version of the Anatomic clog, a vulcanized lace-up, the Stitch-Out Anatomic boot with a raised ridge detail on the toe and the Tube boot with an anatomic toe, cigarillo heel and wide shaft in suede. Throughout, a sleek monochromatic palette of black, white, camel, gray and chalk is enlivened with shades of green and jolts of pink.
The season also marks the launch of the first ready-to-wear collaboration with Salomon: a capsule of minimalist classics — a five-zip mackintosh, a five-pocket jean, a shell jacket with long body zips, a classic men’s tuck-in shirt — are made from bonded Gore-Tex, bringing an almost alien functionality to a cityscape. The complementary Seamless line blends influences from compression base layers worn by athletes to speed recovery and MM6 bodysuits on a compression top, leggings, arm warmers and a bodysuit. The Water Bottle bag, the Trailblazer.
Pocket Backpack and a cap complete the lineup. By focusing on simple gestures that transform everyday dressing, MM6 continues its exploration of clothing, form and wearability. Pieces spark an immediate connection and play on the duality of perception, slipping easily into a wardrobe purposefully prepared to let personality shine through.
Wayne McGregor Employs AI In One Choreographic Work & Addresses The Climate Crisis In Another This Week @ Sadler's Wells In London
text by Lara Monro
This week, the multi-award-winning choreographer and director Wayne McGregor CBE will present Autobiography (v95 and v96) and UniVerse: A Dark Crystal Odyssey at Sadlers Wells, London.
For over twenty five years, McGregor’s multi-dimensional choreographic work has radically redefined dance in the modern era, securing his position at the cutting edge of contemporary arts. Take, for example, his appointment as the first choreographer from a contemporary dance background to be Resident Choreographer at The Royal Ballet in 2006, where he has created over twenty productions that daringly reconfigure classical language.
Alongside his multiple cross-sector collaborations and role at The Royal Ballet, Studio Wayne McGregor is the creative engine of his life-long enquiry into thinking through and with the body. The 30+ works created since being established in 1992 (as Random Dance) showcase the evolution of his distinctive visual style and reveal the movement possibilities of the body in ever more precise degrees of articulation.
McGregor’s Autobiography (v95 and v96) is the latest iteration of Autobiography (1.0), a series of unique dance portraits inspired and determined by the sequencing of his own genetic code. The work upends the traditional nature of dance-making by using the new AI tool AISOMA to hijack his DNA data through its specially created algorithm, which overwrites the configurations of 100 hours+ of his choreographic learning to present fresh movement options to the performers. The meshing of artificial intelligence and instinct converge to create a totally unique dance sequence that complements the medium’s ephemeral quality.
While v95 and v96 shines a light on the cutting edge innovation capabilities of dance and future facing technology, UniVerse: A Dark Crystal Odyssey is a moving meditation on the climate crisis. Inspired by the Jim Henson cult classic, The Dark Crystal, it depicts an Earth driven by extremes and urgently in need of healing; a modern eco-myth that asks how we can come together to be whole again. The combination of cutting-edge costumes paired with the digital landscapes creates a stunning blend of fantasy and documentary.
Autobiography (v95 and v96) will be showcased this Tuesday and Wednesday (March 12th & 13th), while UniVerse: A Dark Crystal Odyssey will be showcased this Friday and Saturday (March 15 & 16th) at Sadlers Wells, London.
scene from Autobiography (v95 and v96)
scene from UniVerse: A Dark Crystal Odyssey
Watch the Video for "Piano Etude No.2" by Philip Glass Reworked by AVR In Collaboration with Mugler
music written by Philip Glass & reworked by AVR
recorded, produced & mixed by AVR
additional production by Fergus Frost
recorded drums: Luca Marini
performed drums: Hanno Stick
Director & Editor: Alex de Brabant
DOP: Kevin Klein
VFX: Felix Geen
Mastering: Felix Davis
Atmos Mastering: Mike Hillier @mikehillier
Colorist: Alaa Abdullatif
Rotoscope: Rohaman Sabbi
AC: Michael Herbers
Assistants: Raphael Fischer-Dieskau, Leander Rau, Mitch Speed
Styling: Nicole Walker
Wardrobe: Mugler
Titles & Logo Design: Fabian Maier-Bode
Logo Animation: Chernoff Faces
Special thanks to: Musicboard Berlin and Gema
AVR’s music is about collective transcendence and experiences that remind us of our shared humanity. The multi-gentre producer, composer and performer who studied jazz and classical piano since the age of nine had some rework ideas about the Philip Glass piece “Piano Etude No.2” for a while. To have it released on Glass’ label now is something she didn’t dare to dream of.
The most famous of his piano works has a big dynamic range, from introverted and serene to powerful and ecstatic — framed by the Glass meditation-like minimalism. the pieces’ emotional state Anna von Raison describes as her favorite in music: neither sad nor happy but instead on a meta-level, looking at things through the lens of freedom.
AVR’s recording starts with Glass’ original piano melody performed solely by her voice, as the song starts to build, the piano enters and once the full chords come together, her rework begins. She extends the composition with a high-energy drum solo part, played by Luca Marini (performed by Hanno STick). Later a choir enters with a legato arena chant melody to settle for the finale the way it all began: in the intimate sung version of the main theme.
Read Our Interview Of Painter Jess Valice On The Occasion Of Her Solo Exhibition @ Almine Rech In New York →
Each and every day we observe thousands of faces online and in person. And with each and every one, we reflexively look for clues to determine how they must feel. It is an empathic impulse endemic to us as social creatures. And yet, regardless of our perpetual, involuntary efforts, we can never be sure that we’ve ascertained any level of truth. It’s this mystery that lies at the heart of Jess Valice’s painted figures. The artist’s initial life path, which was headed toward a medical practice, laid the foundation for an approach to painting that leaves the viewer in a state of quizzical study, lost in the gaze of a subject who was never asking to be diagnosed. The predominant demons and desires of her subjects even seem to elude Valice, as she finds herself reworking each of their faces incessantly until she lands on something that feels honest. For her solo exhibition, Mara, opening today at Almine Rech’s Upper East Side gallery in New York, the subjects in question are at various points of overcoming the part of their egos that obstruct the path to enlightenment, known in Buddhism as Mara. According to Valice, “There is this overwhelming sense of fatigue that I think is typifying our generation, the weight of a spectrum of emotional responses that digital space provokes in us every day… It’s all so complex—this is where the science and melancholia come in—the recognition of this blankness as a widespread response. It’s too much to feel.” Fellow painter and confidante Avery Wheless joined Valice in her studio as the paintings were nearly finished to delve into the making of this new body of work and demystify some of the je ne sais quoi embodied by Valice’s disaffected figures. Read more.
Autre Magazine and Jeffrey Deitch Host A Dinner To Celebrate Frieze Week in Los Angeles at Ardor at The West Hollywood Edition
Last night we kicked off the LA art week with Jeffrey Deitch Gallery and friends at Ardor with a vegetable forward menu by world-renowned chef John Fraser before heading downstairs to the West Hollywood Edition’s signature club, Sunset. Guests included Sharon Stone, Kembra Pfahler, Mykki Blanco, Beck Hansen, Bibbe Hansen, Neville Wakefield, Jordan Wolfson, Ariana Papademetropoulos, Tony Kaye and artists from the groundbreaking group show At the Edge of the Sun, on view now at Jeffrey Deitch Gallery.
Prototypes' AW24 Lookbook Is Bringing It Back to Grassroots
photography by Raphael Bliss
styling by Betsy Johnson
hair by Charlie Le Mindu
makeup by Stephanie Kunz
casting by Conan Laurendot
The commercial use of sports uniforms as merchandise is perpetually being updated from one season to the next, which is why they lend themselves perfectly to a brand like Prototypes that is guided by the principles of upcycling and repurposing. Their newest collection goes beyond the age-old practice within the industry of cultural appropriation to the point of a complete aesthetic cannibalism, and instead serves as an homage to the communal role that local football clubs play within the social fabric of British culture. In this collection we see the groundskeeper, the kitman, the coach, and the youth — they are archetypes within the community that define each passing generation. Each club bears the DNA of its locality, passing down its individualized values of teamwork, physical fitness, stewardship within the field, and honor. For Prototypes Series 06, which was shot at a local club in England with collaborative partner Betsy Johnson, these values are encapsulated in a collection that breathes new sartorial life into that which might otherwise be discarded as old merch. As working class Brits currently bear witness to the gentrification of their most beloved sport, Prototypes is bringing it back to grassroots by sponsoring kits for the club’s new women’s team.
Garish Queerness as a Mode of Restoration in Pierre le Riche's New Show @ Ronewa Art Projects in Berlin
In Pierre le Riche’s current exhibition, In Four Places at Once, the artist creates vivid figurative wall tapestries that center his queer identity while reflecting on the complexities of belonging in a contemporary world. Identity is woven into and essential to le Riche’s practice; much of his work has been aimed at challenging norms and associations around gender and sexuality and confronting themes of colonialism and white privilege. The group of artworks on show emerged from a period of internal struggle as le Riche acclimatized to a new environment following his move from Cape Town to Aachen, Germany. In this light, le Riche’s choice of tufted yarn as a material, reminiscent of cozy household textiles, feels fitting to conjure a homesick state of yearning and introspection. Le Riche’s use of craft – elsewhere in his practice he also employs embroidery, sewing, and crochet – tosses out outdated notions of gendered art forms. Through his homoerotic content, le Riche pushes back against the conservativeness of a middle-class, suburban upbringing in Post-Apartheid South Africa. His cartoonish nude figures, some sporting exaggerated genitalia, can be read as playfully provocative and unapologetically gay, testing the boundaries of puritanical sensibilities. Simultaneously, his characters are contorted and dislocated in space, imbued with vulnerability, uncertainty, and longing.
In Four Places at Once is on view through March 28th at Ronewa Art Projects, Potsdamer Str. 91, 10785 Berlin.
Intimacy, Intensity and Sensuality Are Magnified in Zoë Ghertner's Held in the Palm @ Zodiac Pictures in Los Angeles
Installation view courtesy of the artist and Zodiac Pictures.
Zoë Ghertner’s Held in the Palm dutifully maintains a level of intensity with all of her subjects, exploring and releasing their associative experiential qualities within the still image. With such a meticulous focus, rippling patterns or grainy textures become revealed in places where these qualities might otherwise go overlooked. Using color, texture, and light, Ghertner emphasizes the formal properties of her medium and exploits its immediacy. In some photographs, the artist toys with her compositions to soften and distort the final image—imparting a hazy, gooey, or warming sensation upon the viewer of the finished work. In these final photographs, time is ultimately suspended as each subject becomes an abstraction. Read more.
Held in the Palm is on view through March 23 @ Zodiac Pictures, 145 Bay Street #9 Santa Monica, CA
Time is Stretched Through Muted Tones in Happy Phantom @ Lowell Ryan Projects in Los Angeles
Erin Trefry, Causeway across the sea, 2024. Images by Charles White at JWPictures.com, courtesy of the artist and Lowell Ryan Projects.
Lowell Ryan Projects presents Happy Phantom, an exhibition by Los Angeles-based artist Erin Trefry. Comprised of a series of eleven figurative paintings in muted tones, Trefry continues her exploration of sentiment, time, and figuration particularly in relation to familial narratives and relationships.
In this exhibition, Trefry presents her great-grandmother’s paintings, which were originally created in the late 19th century, and depict figurative scenes of romantic settings, exotic locales, and fantastical narratives. These works were passed down through the generations eventually landing in Trefry’s possession. In Happy Phantom Trefry subverts the imagery of her late relative, the paintings are presented stretched in reverse so that the viewer is only able to see the backside of the works where the paint has bled through the fabric. Behind the paintings, a layer of muslin conceals the surfaces of the original paintings.
Happy Phantom is on view through March 2 @ Lowell Ryan Projects, 4619 W Washington Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90016
Feel the Out-of-Body in Disembodied @ Nicodim in Los Angeles
Installation view of DISEMBODIED. Image courtesy of Nicodim.
Isabelle Albuquerque / Liang Fu / Shana Hoehn / Rae Klein / Agnieszka Nienartowicz / James Owens / Daniel Pitín / Qian Qian / Nicola Samorì
Curated by Ben Lee Ritchie Handler
DISEMBODIED builds and continues conversations around the violence, ecstasy, and epiphany within out-out-body experiences as-seen from the perspective of those on the ground—the leaps of faith we take to believe those who say their souls depart while their bodies remain. The works in the exhibition cover a wide swath of allegorical and tangible disembodied states, including the spiritual, the telegraphic, the psychedelic, the dissociative-induced, artificial intelligences, and alien encounters.
DISEMBODIED is on view through February 17 @ Nicodim, 1700 S Santa Fe Avenue, #160, Los Angeles, CA 90021
Non-Specific Objects Carves Niches for Difference from Universality @ Capitain Petzel in Berlin
The title of Non-Specific Objects acts as a counterpoint to the ideas expressed in Donald Judd’s canonical 1964 essay Specific Objects. Seeing as Judd characterized specific objects as separate from either sculpture or painting, they were precisely themselves, emphasizing the very materiality of a specific object that lacked expressive or symbolic content, especially to embodied subjectivity. This universal space, which aimed to be all-encompassing, did not make room for gender, racial, and sexual difference. The artists in this exhibition work against the hegemonic universal, creating space for difference in their works by means of abstraction, referencing bodies both literally and metaphorically.
The selection of works collectively embodies the contemporary lived experience of those who occupy spaces outside the normative. While they often do not overtly mirror the human form, the works represent humanity through a lens of abstraction and resistance, inviting viewers to confront themselves and experience bodily otherness. From alienation and embarrassment to intimacy and desire, the artists offer both the possibility of self-reflection and shared moments of humor.
In focus is the abstracted body – be it the intimate nature, materiality, and particularities of the individual human body, the collective body that is built on shared historic experience, the extended and amplified body in an age of relentless augmentation, or the body that eschews realistic painterly modes of representation, opting for formally abstract or heavily stylized, sometimes nostalgic renditions of humanity. The diverse set of artistic practices does not adhere to strict principles of representation, but continually references the human, sometimes clearly and often obliquely. It highlights objects that refuse human form but relate to the human by embracing abstraction.
Non-Specific Objects is on view through February 24th at Capitain Petzel, Karl-Marx-Allee 45, 10178 Berlin.
Read Bliss Foster's Notes on Spring 2024 Haute Couture Week in Paris
text by Bliss Foster
1. When we look at designers that are clearly a once-in-a-lifetime talent, we recognize them because they do far more than just make outstanding work — the difference between them and any other hardworking and apt fashion designer is that they have the confidence to go so far against the grain and know that they will be rewarded for it. And in John Galliano’s case this season, he leaned so far into his universe and embraced ideas whose execution would horrify most. But by marching to the beat of his own drum and embracing pubic wigs, John Galliano has enabled Maison Margiela to break through to the most mainstream attention through his portrayal of the most seedy and debaucherous Paris. The sheerest garments appeared muddied and tattered, distorting our perception of the body in a manner no different than the corsets in this show that were wrenched tight on the models. It takes a lot of work to make a gross bar the setting of something beautiful, but Galliano’s vision is so effective that he redeems this uniquely Parisian genre of hedonism: taking us from literal tatters to haute couture. It’s no surprise that the glass skin makeup, keyed by the legendary Pat McGrath, has managed to sell out every single product whose effect on the skin would even approximate what she created for the show.
2. Simone Rocha’s stab at Jean Paul Gaultier couture was a large event for celebrities, which is a largely unexpected audience for the cult following of the coquette brand. But the standard JPG audience seemed thrilled - Simone’s clothing has that effect on people. Even if you’re not the kind of person that is inherently attracted to the overtly feminine, in the hands of Simone Rocha, bows become tears and frilly dresses can become a part of showcasing your cheerless attitude. Making exuberant clothing for people who can never be as spirited as their outfit implies is beautifully complex. The JPG cone bra is given a lift, turning into spiky rose thorns. Jean Paul’s tattoo exploration from Spring 1994 is reinterpreted into a sheer, organza pannier dress, trimmed with snakes, thorny branches, and roses. It’s not Rocha’s work without jewels and crystals, which created the structure of many tulle looks, but were notably present as eyeshadow and eyebrow adornment on the faces of many models. Likewise, it’s not a JPG show without the Marinière, whose stripes this season were piped with twisting bows made of navy satin ribbon. One of my favorite details were the sock-bun earrings, wrapped in hair.
3. A poem accompanied Rahul Mishra’s couture show this season and, put succinctly, it was about appreciating the small things in life. The whole collection centered around this theme, further emphasized by the beautiful cards on the showgoers’ seats that listed the near extinction of many species of moth and butterfly. Couture has a radically different pace than the ready-to-wear calendar, and part of that includes a strange slowing down. When you have a chance to slow down, you can appreciate the incredibly intricate details that make Rahul Mishra’s haute couture such a compelling endeavor, while also digesting his discussion on biodiversity and the preservation of nature. The sheer circular shields carried by the models appear to invite us to look through the lens of a microscope and see the details of a dragonfly, a hive of bees, and the intricate patterns of a close-up honeycomb whose inspiration is spread across the entire collection. Honeycomb became crystal grids which were found on the most exciting looks in the collection.
4. The couture of Viktor and Rolf’s only raison d’etre is to bother purists who clutch their pearls about the beauty, grace, and exactitude of couture, and that is meant in the absolute best way possible. What makes V&R so special is their ability to communicate exactly what couture stands for in their luxurious, precise work, while thematically bucking every haute couture convention. The distinctive sound of scissors was turned into a walkable beat, while four looks traced the evolution of a gradual destruction and reconstruction via the very scissors the audience could hear loudly snapping away. Deconstruction itself is not easy to do well, thousands of designers try and fail at creating compelling designs through the use of deconstruction. Turning deconstruction into a sliding scale however is an entirely different goal. The in-between looks seem to capture the process of how they were created surprisingly well, but are also decorated with the motif of child-like scissor destruction, covered in the most lovely and professionally finished jagged holes.
5. Volume looks effortless when Gaurav Gupta does it, delicately swirling about the wearer, but this was a less voluminous show than usual for the brand. This season’s showing included evening jackets, trench coats and bronze bustiers, grounding this collection in a wearability that is not often seen in couture presentations. Gaurav’s devotees were dressed to the nines in his work, of course. It’s rare to see couture look so effortless and stunning on folks who aren’t walking a runway.
6. Miss Sohee’s couture radically modernizes the public’s expectation of what couture can look like. Yet, Sohee Park’s vision seems rooted in the most antiquated and vintage inspirations. Her collection was inspired by the old South Korean antiques she seems to adore, but it seems more than just inspiration. Each look appears to personify a particular and individual antique, and in this way, each look feels like a loveable, household object from Beauty and the Beast after they come to life. The cohesion in this collection is spectacularly strong while maintaining a large variety between the looks, almost as if the looks themselves are a perfectly curated shelf of objects. If Cristobal was alive today, it’s possible that some shapes in this collection would stir up some envy, most notably in the chartreuse-colored lamé gown.
7. Robert Wun’s fantasy horror show is sharp in all the right places. It’s a literal sharpness in the busts, peplums and some shoulders of these horror storybook characters. But more impressively, the execution of this collection left no detail unattended to, nothing was out of place. It’s not often you see such precision in just runway looks - usually that precision is much more expected, really demanded, in product. But being so up close to Robert Wun’s work reinforced a professionalism and an attention to detail that has left a lot to be desired from other couturiers. Every element was immovable and complete, a standard to only ever expect from the major luxury houses, and a standard that is often unfair to place onto emerging designers. But Robert Wun has been in business for 10 years, and he has experienced career highlights that emerging designers could only dream of.
Catherine Corman's "Lost Explorer" Is A Prosaic Observation of Beauty Hiding In Plain Sight
written and directed by Catherine Corman
based on the novel Honeymoon by Patrick Modiano
Jean: Roger Corman
Annette: Sally Kirkland
“Song of the Sea” written and performed by Emahoy Tsegué-Maryam Guèbrou
Jean (Roger Corman), an undersea explorer and documentarian, has begun to question his life’s work. Skipping a flight to Rio for his next expedition, he returns instead to the city, revisiting the places that inspired his quest for adventure, hoping to rediscover the longing that drove him to the ends of the earth, and which now pulls him back to his own past.
A statement from the artist:
“Years ago, I wrote a book about the Surrealist sculptor Joseph Cornell. His enchantment with the sea led to portraits of the mythical water nymph Undine, an homage to Descartes made of driftwood, and variations on Chardin constructed out of seashells. The sea became a sort of metaphor for art, each visible and knowable, and yet a mystery.
Another kindred spirit of the Surrealists was the undersea filmmaker Jean Painlevé, whose slow motion underwater ballets starring seahorses, starfish and seashells, illuminated the secrets of the depths of the sea. His mute, lyrical images are a poetic ideal that inspired Lost Explorer.
Painlevé and Cornell explored ways of creating art by of observing objects in the world, things as they are — sea creatures drifting along ocean currents, old postcards of mermaids, faded slides of white seashells - and revealing their natural, inadvertent beauty.
In this film I have tried to observe the world and gently arrange it into poetry. I shot existing locations, unaltered. There was no crew — no set dressing, no lighting, no costumes. All the clothes my father wears are his own, all the props were found around our house.
This is the simplest sort of filmmaking, more an observation of the world, with careful attention to all of its latent poetry, and openness to the mystery and beauty, barely hidden, waiting to be discovered.”
Object (Soap Bubble Set) (1941), Joseph Cornell
Still from The Seahorse (1931), Jean Painlevé
Catherine Corman's short films Lost Horizon and Little Jewel, based upon the work of Nobel Laureate Patrick Modiano, were long-listed for the Academy Award. Little Jewel was also invited to the Cannes Film Festival. Her short film Les Non-Dupes screened at the Berlin Biennale. Her book of photographs, Daylight Noir, was exhibited at the Venice Biennale and is included in the collection of the Museum of Modern Art. She was educated at Harvard College and Oxford University.
Roger Corman is an Academy Award winning filmmaker who has been honored by the Cinémathèque Française, the British Film Institute, and the Museum of Modern Art. He has made over five-hundred films, including a series of Edgar Allan Poe films, and a number of films chronicling the 1960s counter-culture. His film The Wild Angels was the opening night film at the Venice Film Festival. He received the first Producer’s Award at the Cannes Film Festival. He distributed films by Ingmar Bergman, François Truffaut, Federico Fellini, and Akira Kurosawa in America.
Patrick Modiano received the 2014 Nobel Prize in Literature. In his citation, the Nobel Committee highlighted “the art of memory with which he has evoked the most ungraspable human destinies and uncovered the life-world of the occupation." He has also received the Grand Prix du roman de l'Académie française and the Prix Goncourt. He is the author of more than forty books.
Sally Kirkland was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actress for her performance in Anna, for which she also received a Golden Globe for Best Performance by an Actress in a Motion Picture, an Independent Spirit Award for Best Female Lead, and a Los Angeles Film Critics Association Award for Best Actress. A former member of Andy Warhol’s Factory, she has appeared in over two-hundred films.
Yves Tumor for Acne Studios FW24 Menswear Collection
Acne Studios shot American musician Yves Tumor for their FW24 Menswear collection and they couldn’t have chosen a more appropriate muse. The artist constantly shifts, alters and plays with the boundaries of contemporary music, art, culture and aesthetic. “Yves felt just right for the collection, they are one of those people who are true to their art. When they are on stage, it’s incomparable, it’s hard to find real performances like that. It feels scary and lovely at the same time. They also embody the space age, cyber psychedelic vision and at the same time they are super rock. The way they pull a look together feels very in the spirit of the collection. On the shoot, it was brilliant, it felt completely different all the time, downtown/uptown, low-tech/high-tech, scary and cute, all at once. Yves has all these different sides, which to me, represents what a true rebel is: a person you want to be, who doesn’t give a shit but makes immaculate choices.” says Jonny Johansson, Creative Director, Acne Studios.
An ode to Denim culture: rebellious, sexy, and cool. The modern cyber biker. Menswear motorbike archetypes subverted with a kitsch cuteness. Neons clash with classic grunge details, mixing with psychedelic prints inspired by rave and club culture.
Contrasted proportions: low-waisted, high-waisted, skin-tight and oversized. Micro tank tops and cropped shearling jackets juxtaposed with maxi boots and ultra-baggy denim. The look is layered, worn with individuality and playful experimentation. There is a sporty ski element in the styling, straps hang off the body adding length and functionality. Denim silhouettes are updated: a round shape inspired by the early 2000s and a low-waist flared trumpet leg, meant to drag around the foot.
Fluffy faux fur hats with cat ears, mittens and scarves inspired by Kawaii street-style culture. Mohair hairy yarn is found in a new squared beanie shape and in mitts and scarves, adding a fuzzy element.
Extremes meet: micro-sized vs maxi-sized. Trompe l’oeil totes are covered with keychains and charms, whilst the Platt bag is updated with studs, heart charms and pink detailing. A new Musubi model with chain straps is introduced and the Multipocket is reinvented in pink with a foiled shiny finish. New monogram handbag and backpack in black nylon with buckles and metallic bows.
Autre Magazine Co-Hosts A Fog Art Fair Dance Party In San Francisco With On Approval and Friends
Last Friday, AUTRE magazine cohosted a hot and sweaty late night dance party to celebrate Fog Art Fair in San Francisco with On Approval, Altman Siegel, Value Culture and Exhibited.At. A mix of tech and art worlds collided with locals at the Lions Den Lounge in Chinatown with music by Eugene Whang and Jeremy Costello. photos by Oliver Kupper