What's up! trouvaillesdujour: April 2012

Monday, April 30, 2012

Cindy Sherman; Chanel Revisited

In this photographic series, American photographer Cindy Sherman exhibits new, large-scale works that depict enigmatic female figures standing in striking landscapes, and wearing vivid Chanel costumes. Rather than staging scenes in her studio or using projected images, the dramatic settings were all photographed by Sherman and then manipulated in Photoshop to achieve a painterly effect.

Sherman's self-portraits are based on an insert she did for Dasha Zhukova's magazine using clothes from Chanel's archive. The images published were significantly altered as Sherman developed the series for this exhibition. Wearing early haute couture pieces from the 1920s designed by Coco Chanel to more recent Karl Lagerfeld collections, she selected eccentric, often fantastical, outfits before pairing them with images she shot in Iceland during a 2010 volcanic eruption and the isle of Capri. While the series recalls photography's early mission to map the "new world," Sherman's analysis equally references the tradition of 19th century landscape painting, where lonely figures are dominated by the magnificent nature that surrounds them. The artist's looming characters however reverse this heavenly view by relegating nature to the supporting role.

Cindy Sherman's new series is currently showing at Metro Pictures Gallery, New York.
April 28 - June 9, 2012

Cindy Sherman

Untitled, 2010/2011 © Cindy Sherman / Metro Pictures NY

Untitled, 2010/2012 © Cindy Sherman / Metro Pictures NY

Courtesy of Cindy Sherman and Metro Pictures Gallery, New York

Cindy Sherman

April 28 - June 9, 2012
This post is featured on the Huffington Post

Friday, April 27, 2012

Palazzo Margherita: An Idyllic Getaway

Palazzo Margherita, a restored 19th Century Italian Villa is the latest addition to Francis Ford Coppola's collection of resorts. Located in the Basilicata region of Southern Italy, in the charming town of Bernalda (the birthplace of Francis's grandfather), the authentic palazzo has been completely renovated in partnership with acclaimed French designer Jacques Grange.

First built in 1892, the block-long palazzo embodies Italian elegance. The interior is styled with tiled floors and hand-painted fresco ceilings with a taste of Moroccan and Baroque flair. The luxurious boutique hotel has seven large suites and two garden rooms. Each is a work of art and features a palatial bathroom, which faces the charming gardens and a secluded swimming pool. The entire Coppola family collaborated with Grange in contributing personal details to individual rooms, creating an intimate atmosphere of a private home.

"I never initially dreamed of opening a resort in Italy, let alone in the town of my grandfather Agostino Coppola. Yet when I purchased and designed the now Palazzo Margherita for friends and family to call home in Italy, I knew I needed to extend the property and surrounding village of 'Bernalda bella' to my guest as well."
~~~Francis Ford Coppola

Palazzo Margherita

© Lisa Limer

@ Lisa Limer

© Lisa Limer

© Tim Beddow

Courtesy of Palazzo Margherita

Wednesday, April 25, 2012

POLIXENI PAPAPETROU: " The Dreamkeepers "

Australian artist Polixeni Papapetrou trends the line between fantasy/theatre, mythology/reality, archetype/play, male/female, child/adult and animal/human. As with all her work the series The Dreamkeepers tells a story that includes her autobiographical relationship with her children, but it also says a lot more about the condition of childhood - its place in our culture and how we react to images of children in photography.
~~Susan Bright - Excerpt from Between Worlds catalogue

Papapetrou's art practice has involved collaboration with her children and their friends for over 10 years. The models in The Dreamkeepers are her two children aged 13 and 15. A man in blue striped pajamas stands on a rock by the sea, leaning into the wind. His body seems young yet he supports himself with a walking frame. His face is old, a little grotesque..... He is The Wavecounter.

To Polixeni Papapetrou: What inspired you to make "The Dreamkeepers"

After making Between Worlds I knew that I wanted to keep working with masks as I was still intrigued by the transformative quality. I began researching the types of masks that are commercially available and noticed that many masks were caricatures of the elderly. I was struck by this concept, that the elderly were portrayed as grotesque or comical figures suitable for Halloween and dress ups.

I became interested in the idea of the elderly as ‘other’. I thought that to simply rely on these ready made caricatures of the elderly was too simplistic and possibly demeaning. I searched for a mask that was in a way timeless, but that also had the quality of age and was able to transcend age too. I found a couple of masks that were suitable and I was able to create characters and change their appearance through the use of make-up on the mask, wigs and costumes.

I began the series with the work “The Lighthouse Keepers” which was based on childhood memories of living close to a port and a lighthouse. I thought that the people who worked and lived in the lighthouse were different to us, other, like some eccentric mythical people living unconventional lives. I thought about the freedom that these people enjoy in a life that can be constrained by conservative values. Paradoxically, for the characters that I created for this work their great freedom is to know nothing about the rhetoric of dreams, ambition and commercial success that is marketed us in our culture.

I became interested in reflecting upon the liminal stages in life where you transition from one phase of life to another. Growing up from a child into an adolescent has some parallels to the transition from adult to aged adult. I was curious about the idea of younger people feeling old and old people feeling young. Whatever age we are, we carry within us the germ of the opposite and thus, we are always old and always young. But we cannot stop the transformations of time and we change. It’s possible that with such transformation we are forced to examine our identity and role and there is some of feeling marginalized, not being appealing or made to feel redundant and grotesque, both physically and psychologically. Certainly many of the commercially available masks of the elderly portray this image.

As in Between Worlds where I collapsed the animal body and the child body into one to look at what separates us, in ‘The Dreamkeepers’ I used a similar technique to collapse these extremes of the life cycle into the one body to think about a common humanity. It is both a critique of representation of youth and the aged and a meditation on being itself.

Polixeni Papapetrou lives and works in Melbourne, Australia. She has held over 40 solo exhibitions and participated in over 70 group exhibitions in Australia and internationally.
The Dreamkeepers is currently on view at Stills Gallery, Paddington, Australia
March 28 - May 5, 2012

The Dreamkeepers

The Shell Collectors © Polixeni Papapetrou

The Joy Pedlars @ Polixeni Papapetrou

The Lighthouse Keepers © Polixeni Papapetrou

The Wavecounter © Polixeni Papapetrou

The Mender © Polixeni Papapetrou

The Mystical Mothers © Polixeni Papapetrou

The Photographer © Polixeni Papapetrou

The Wayfarer © Polixeni Papapetrou

The Wanderer © Polixeni Papapetrou

Courtesy Polixeni Papapetrou / Stills Gallery, Australia
This post is featured on the Huffington Post

Wednesday, April 18, 2012

Cristóbal Balenciaga; The Great Master of Couture

Discover now the intimate world of Cristóbal Balenciaga, the "Fashion's Picasso" as Cecil Beaton called him. A tribute to the great Spanish designer, the exhibition Cristóbal Balenciaga, collector of fashion at Les Docks - Cité de la Mode et du Design features over seventy costumes, alongside with haute couture coats and dresses designed by Balenciaga from 1937 to 1968. Also on display are personal items, such as accessories, photographs, sketches, and art books that demonstrate the designer's passion for history, and his cultural heritage.

Velvet boleros, satin torero costumes, magnificent capes and mantelets, cashmere stoles, lace mantillas, dresses, samples of embroidery and trimming, all these lavish items figure in profusion in this collection assembled by the the great master of couture and generously donated to the museum by his family.

The Galliera Museum's extra-mural program continues at Les Docks - Cité de la Mode et du Design with two simultaneous exhibitions dedicated to two renowned fashion designers from different periods of time: Cristóbal Balenciaga and Rei Kawakubo of Comme des Garçons (see my previous post on Rei Kawakubo's exhibit).

Cristóbal Balenciaga

1937-1968

© Pierre Antoine / Paris Musées

Private collection Cristóbal Balenciaga. Crinoline dress, around 1870 © Delphine Jaulhac / Galliera

Balenciaga. Bolero and skirt (details), 1949

© Stéphane Piera / Galliera / Roger-Viollet

Private collection Cristóbal Balenciaga. Boléro, early 20th century

© Delphine Jaulhac / Galliera

Balenciaga. Dress coat "Papillon", 1968

© E. Emo and A. Llaurency / Galliera / Roget-Viollet

Private collection Cristóbal Balenciaga. Men's bolero, Spain mid-19th century

© Eric Emo / Galliera / Roger-Viollet

Private collection Cristóbal Balenciaga. Mantelet, around 1895

© Eric Emo / Galliera / Roger-Viollet

Private collection Cristóbal Balenciaga. Traditional men's jacket worn for Andalusian ballet, mid-19th century © Stéphane Piera / Galliera / Roger-Viollet

Private collection Cristóbal Balenciaga. Virgin dress, end of 18th century or early 19th century

© Stéphane Piera / Galliera / Roger-Viollet

Private collection Cristóbal Balenciaga. Cape, around 1895

© Eric Emo / Galliera / Roger-Viollet

Private collection Cristóbal Balenciaga. Mantelet , around 1895

Balenciaga. Evening dress number 128 F/W 1967. Balenciaga Archives Paris

Courtesy of Galliera Museum

Cristóbal Balenciaga, collector of fashion is on view at Les Docks - Cité de la Mode et du Design, Paris.

April 13 - October 7, 2012

Curator: Olivier Saillard, Director of the Galliera Museum
This post is featured on the Huffington Post

Monday, April 16, 2012

Comme des Garçons: " White Drama "

The Galliera Museum's extra-mural program continues at Les Docks - Cité de la Mode et du Design with two concurrently running exhibitions: one on Cristobal Balenciaga and the other on Rei Kawakubo.

My post for today is on Rei Kawakubo's exhibit. This is not an ordinary fashion show but instead an art installation, designed by Rei Kawakubo herself, where the viewer can enjoy the latest Comme des Garcons S/S 2012 collection, and have a closer look on the models on display.

Known for her unconventional creations, the founder and designer of Comme des Garçons has metamorphosed the classic fashion show and rewritten the codes of high fashion. In White Drama with its quasi-monochrome models, Rei Kawakubo dramatizes life's big events: birth, marriage, death and transcendence.

White Drama is whiteness - pure, ceremonial white of every hue; Blossoming flowers, layered handkerchiefs, white-flecked material, lace insets inspired by christening robes, an obi-bow belt, overcoats and tall hats reminiscent of the Holy Week processions in Seville, a wedding gown like the silky cocoon of an insect, opaque and sheer fabrics. White Drama is a masterful fashion architecture that transports the viewer to the unique world of Rei Kawakubo.

Rei Kawakubo, Comme des Garçons White Drama

Spring / Summer 2012