Ellerman Contemporary
Published by Schreiber Media / www.schreibermedia.net
ISSUE FIVE
Ellerman House offers stimulation for all the senses.
Team Ellerman
Diners Club Wine List Award 2010
Ellerman House Food & Beverage Manager, MJ Birch,
recently brought home another Diners Club Diamond
Award for our comprehensive wine list. This is the
third consecutive year Ellerman House has won a
Diners Club award for our wine list. MJ personally
compiles an extensive cellar from the best Cape
wineries as well as from cellar’s abroad. Our 7,500
bottles ensure an excellent match for any meal.
Maurice van Essche
Born in Belgium in 1906,
van Essche lived in Paris,
Zaire and South Africa
during his career as
an artist. His work as a
freelance cartoonist is
evident in his treatment
of the facial features in
many of his paintings.
George Pemba
Despite paintings dating back to the 1930’s,
Pemba only came to prominence in 1991 as
apartheid began to crumble. Originally working
only in watercolour, he switched to oil on the
advice of fellow artist Gerard Sekoto. Pemba’s
works relish in portraits and group scenes, based
on memory or imagination.
“People”, says
general manager
Nick Dreyer. “Once all
the boxes have been checked
by guests, relating to the hotel
location, facilities and comfort
of their rooms, it’s the quality of
people who serve them which
becomes the recurring theme
during a stay.
Nick and his staff have gone
out of their way to ensure that
the hotel becomes not just a
destination, but an experience too.
“Guests are here to enjoy our
unique facilities and location
and staff are here to anticipate
their needs, without them even
becoming aware of it.”
When you speak to staff they
use words such as ‘understated’
and ‘unobtrusive’ in
3
describing their role in
6
keeping guests happy.
7
5
1
2
This approach to guests
4
reveals an advanced
awareness in managing
this world-class
establishment.
“Staff have become
accustomed to being
At your service: 1 Vicky Dennett 2 Titus Kakova 3
flexible and supportive
Austen Johnston 4 Nick Dreyer 5 Lindsy Marais 6
when dealing with
William Mageqa 7 Cordelia Bauti.
requests. Our guests have
diverse interests and
preferences and we tailor-make
calibre recognises that wealth
our response to ensure we fulfill
and success do not equate to
these as best possible,” explains
overly stuffy service. Rather,
Nick.
the relaxed, confident character
All hotels have a certain
of both hotel and people are
character and Ellerman House
cherished as the true value of a
is no exception. A hotel of this
memorable stay.
Ellerman House
180 Kloof Road Bantry Bay Cape Town 8005 South Africa PO Box 515 sea point 8060
Telephone +27 21 430-3200 Fax +27 21 430-3215 email : [email protected] > www.ellerman.co.za
Graphic
Club
Revived
The Graphic Club of
South Africa was founded
by Fred Schimmel in
1970 with the aim of
making fine quality art,
by well-known artists
available at affordable
prices. Fred worked
with artists such as Cecil
Skotnes, Walter Battiss,
Lucky Sibiya and many
others to make silkscreen
works available to
members as part of their
subscription. During the
seventies the Graphic
Club produced many
silkscreens and achieved
its aim of spreading
quality South African art
into the homes of ordinary
people. The club has now
relaunched with a 21st
century online format,
with the same aims: to
make original silkscreen
prints available to people
who may not be able to
afford original art works
by the well-known and
established artists. Fred
Schimmel’s daughter,
Gail, has partnered
with ArtVault in this
endeavor and they remain
committed to the values
and quality cherished by
the original club.
For more information go
to www.graphicclub.co.za
Kevin Roberts
– Ingrid Stevens
Clive Hassall
Above: Nature Nurture. Below: Detail from Messages of Rain. Below right: Robert’s allows viewers their own meaning.
The weft, those varied horizontal threads that provide
the colour, pattern and the pictorial surface to woven cloth, can be seen as
the figures, images, objects and surroundings that Roberts so painstakingly
depicted, and the symbolic meanings that they suggest. Roberts, who died in
August 2009, was careful not to interpret his own work too closely, believing
that there must be space for each viewer to construct his or her own meanings
from the paintings. He was quoted as saying that his paintings seek to evoke
a sense of mystery that resonates with the viewer or to suggest a poetic
promise of meaning, but never closure. However, recurring symbols provide
abundant material for interpretation. Many works show a robed woman,
sitting or standing quietly or engaged in some activity, yet always still, calm
and tranquil. She is an archetype, not a specific person, a Madonna or mother,
sister of daughter, a teacher or a bearer of new life, or a metaphor for some
aspect of the human condition, such as human spirituality, the unconscious,
the meditative and the instinctive. She is juxtaposed with myriad other signs:
signs of the mundane, everyday world, such as plastic chairs, crates and
bowls; allusions to Africa, such as enclosures made from thatch or sticks;
references to Europe or the East in roses, patterned hangings, embroidered
cloths or trellises. Through these images, Roberts alluded to various cultural
traditions. One is the tradition of western painting that peaked during the
Italian Renaissance (the bird, for example, may represent the angel of the
annunciation), as well as part of ancient Greece, Rome, the Gothic and Middle
East. Traces can be found of Nigerian Ife figures, Picasso’s Mediterranean
women, the painting on Fulani cattle, and many other visual sources.
Equally important are symbols of nature such as flowers, cows, birds,
landscapes, water in many forms, fossils, local fauna and flora, such as acacia
trees and buck. Readings of these are varied and potentially complex. For
example, the bird is often a messenger, of rain, of change or of the passing
of time. The cow long fascinated Roberts, because of the intimate and
long relationship between man and cattle in Africa. The cow could signify
possession and wealth or, placed on a palette or trestle, suggest an object
of worship or the female principle. Water is a sign of plenty, luxury and
ease, or of spiritual renewal. It also represents the female principle and the
subconscious. The landscapes are typical of South Africa with its grasslands,
thorn bush or ploughed fields, and give a sense of place.
Roberts responded to nature, to his urban environment, to art and to
the cultures that exist around him, weaving them into his highly personal
paintings and sculptures. All these symbols resonate, reflect or reinforce each
other. They give rise to more abstract considerations, which may be specific to
an individual work, but which, taken as a whole, often construct meditations
about the relationship of man to nature, the tendency and ability to control
and tame nature, the tension between containment and freedom, the cyclical
passage of time, the workings of memory and the interrelationships between
nature and culture.
Jean Doyle
The elements of my sculptures are
scavenged from many different sources. These
may include a Bob Dylan lyric, the soaring
notes of Sibongile Khumalo’s powerful voice,
an innocent bystander who unwittingly poses
for me or the Duchess of Kent’s hat. I am a
hunter/gatherer who finds rich pickings at every
turn and my influences range from artists,
writers, movie-makers; those people who
review my work and those who interpret it. At
times my sculptures themselves betray me and
are not loyal to my intention. They masquerade
in fancy dress and I can never, therefore, claim
my sculptures as wholly my own.
I grew up in a home where creativity was a
part of everyday existence. My father was
a painter as well as being a craftsman of
considerable talent and I was exposed to
painting from an early age, as well as leather
tooling, wood carving, pottery and carpentry.
As a child I took little pleasure in toys, but
would sit beneath his easel making ‘frames’
for his paintings from old wooden fruit boxes.
The Frank Joubert Art School nurtured my
creativity during my school years then later,
as a student, I was most influenced by Stephen
de Villiers, who gave me the fundamentals
of picture-making and a life-long interest in
art history. Ute Brittingh gave me a thorough
grounding in form, balance, volume, structure
and the character of 3 dimension. All this
stood me in good stead for when I felt I could
Above: The artist at work on a commissioned bust for an American banker.
Top right: Madonna of Muizenberg. Above right: Daughters of the British Empire.
Below: The Pursuit of Wisdom.
abandon my student years and invent my own
kind of creativity.
My style has therefore evolved through the
process of work and reflection and is my
version of the truth. I delight in the volume
and bounty of my figures, whether I am
translating famous nudes from historical
paintings into bronze and endowing them
with incongruous attributes, or depicting self
consciously well-nourished and thoroughly
contemporary females. I have a natural
inclination towards volume; extravagant
and immoderate polished surfaces relieved
by areas of intricate detail – bold women,
swelling with sensuality bearing an arsenal
of jewellery. A lurking element of camp
reinforces this hyperbole.
The clay with which I sculpt is sympathetic,
unresisting and forgiving: it doesn’t hold
me to any promises or make any demands. I
completely fill my allotted space with it, like
filling an entire canvass with paint or a whole
page with writing. In our foundry, using skill
and craftsmanship and sometimes feats of
engineering, we transform this responsive
and malleable material into hard, resisting,
burnished bronze. It becomes defiant, exists
independently and alludes to indestructibility.
My creations are of art and technology, wholly
and distinctly dependent on each other; a
coexistence of control and sensuality.
Dylan Lewis
Above: Lewis urges us to wake up and acknowledge our link to the wild.
Above Right: Male Trans-Figure V Maquette. Below Right: Walking Lion Maquette II.
s one of only a handful of
living artists to have had a
solo exhibition at Christie’s
of London, Dylan Lewis is
one of South Africa’s greatest creative
exports. In June 2007, the final editions
of the South African sculptor’s work
went under the hammer in an auction
titled Predators and Prey – The Animal
Bronzes of Dylan Lewis. The auction
filled the South Kensington sale hall to
capacity; all 75 sculptures sold within
just 90 minutes and all estimates were
exceeded, putting Lewis firmly on the art
world’s centre stage.
But that’s not to say that Lewis
had been in the wings before this
momentous milestone. Among longstanding collectors of his sculpture
are royalty, captains of industry and
inspiration has never been either the large
cats or animals at all. Instead, what truly
drives Lewis is his passion for wilderness.
Dylan Lewis was born in Johannesburg in
1964, and grew up in Africa. He is the son
of the late well-known sculptor of birds
Robin Lewis and comes from an artistic
family. His great-grandfather, Thomas
Rayfon Lewis, and grandmother, Renee
Hughes, were accomplished painters, his
great grandmother was a concert pianist,
and his mother Valerie and brother Tim
are practicing artists today. In addition
to the family’s love of art was a tandem
love of nature and the outdoors, and the
young Lewis spent a good deal of time
in the wild, untamed spaces of Africa,
collecting interesting stones and rocks in
arid canyons and observing animals in
their natural habitat. These early years saw
A
heads of state around the world. Indeed,
Lewis’s first ever solo exhibition was
back in 1995, a relatively small affair
at his intimate studio in the Cape Town
winelands district of Stellenbosch. His
first international exhibition followed
in the late 90s, the start of a concerted
exhibitions programme which entailed
showing between three and five times
every year across the United Kingdom,
North America and South Africa. Over
this seven-year period he gathered a
loyal core of collectors and garnered a
formidable reputation, taking his place
on the international art stage as a sculptor
of enormous merit and formidable talent
with his bronze animals and birds, and
particularly his large cat predators.
Although initially recognised primarily
as an animalier, Lewis’s most influential
the start of Lewis’s abiding passion for
wilderness. It is in wilderness areas that
he feels most at home, and his subjects
function as metaphors for landscape
through which the artist can communicate
his deeper concerns. It could even be said
that cliff overhangs, arid earth forms and
large natural outcropping of rock are as
much his models as any flesh and blood
subjects, as are the energetic, swirling
patterns he sees in natural phenomena
from cloud formations, to swirls of dust,
to grasslands, twisted tree trunks and even
his fingerprints.
However, before turning to sculpture,
Lewis started his career as a painter, and
had forged a reputation for himself as such
before picking up sculpting tools after
the death of his father. His painting was
driven by his desire to capture the African
“Over the past few years I have
become increasingly aware of the
significance of wilderness to the
human psyche, and have been
exploring the idea of coexisting
internal and external, free and
untamed wild spaces.”
light and the textures and subtleties of the
African landscape, which over time found
expression in his sculptures.
Following in his father’s footsteps,
Lewis’s first sculptures were done very
much in his father’s fashion and were
also of bird forms. However, Lewis
quickly started to develop his own
style and added successive new animal
subjects to his repertoire, including rhino,
buffalo, baboon, and most prolifically,
the large wild cat predators of Africa.
Until 2005, working from his studio just
outside Stellenbosch, Cape Town, Lewis
focused extensively on the leopard, lion
and cheetah.
Monumental in scale and surreal in their
inverted repose, these figures are etched
with the remnants of earthy textures and
embedded with craftily disguised signifiers
of dimly remembered, animal-like,
freedoms: a leg is strangely cat-like, a line,
sensuously feline. These somnambulent
visions defy gravity, reaching into another
dimension through the veil of sleep – into
a dream world where shapeshifting and
metamorphosis are possible, where instinct
is rediscovered and the coils of human
limitation and culpability are banished.
These visions conjure the shaman,
the conveyor of truths, as much as they
do the despair of the human condition
and life’s central paradoxes. Ultimately,
these graceful yet weighty figures
communicate desperate longing, loss
and the extent to which humans are
irrevocably tied to the earth.
They bid us to wake up, before
wilderness is only the stuff of our
collective, distantly remembered, dreams.
Creative Musical Genius
Statue
“The fog lifted, I could hear again …
I survived.” – David Helfgott
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Top: A sculpture by Dylan Lewis in Kirstenbosch Gardens encapsulates the spirit for the new landscaping.
Above: Plans for the new Ellerman House garden tie together the old and new buildings. Below: Texture ideas.
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A Unique Sense of Place
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out the baggage of any ill-fitting
element.”
nostalgia which might exist on the
A grand plan to introduce the
LOWER
LANDSCAPING
present site. He also wants to create
illusion of movement
in the
Ellerman
Scale 1:100
a platform for the present with a
garden is also planned.
A variety of
possible view of the future.
indigenous Protea, the Pin Cushion,
With the rapid expansion of
is planned for the lawn terraces.
Ellerman House the disjointed
These will be planted in rows,
boundary’s between the original
starting with dark red varieties on
historical building and the
one side and fading through the
contemporary Ellerman Villa
colour spectrum to a pale yellow
required a new seamless approach.
variety at the far side. This giant
The kloof between the Villa and
‘fade’ will create a dynamic, artistic
Ellerman House will now be a
element to the grounds.
continuation of the existing lawn
“It’s all about taking the best of
Sculptures
terrace, yet carved out of water,
the
old and the best of the new and
which will cascade down among
creating something truly unique,”
radiating arch’s inspired by the
de Wit.
Green concludes
Screens
existing geometry found on site.
Arched walkways will connect
various parts of this new creation
in a visual twist of contemporary/
classical design.
De Wit see’s this landscape as
being an animation of movement,
Phragmites australis
growth and time.
“Water starts as a naturallooking spring and ends in strict
geometric pools. Indigenous reeds Tasting room floor
will change and grow in height
as they move down the contours
and commissioned sculpture will
introduce a human, intellectual
8
POOL
What is the South African
aesthetic? This is a core
question Wesley de Wit of Circa
Landscapes continually tries to
answer, and is presently grappling
with as he tackles a new project at
Ellerman House.
Ever since the epoch of famous
South African architect Herbert
Baker and landscape painter Jakobus
Pierneef it seems the search for our
unique aesthetic has slipped away.
These two visual pioneers of the
early 20th Century understood the
inherant value of the South African
landscape and sought to enhance it
rather than dominate it.
“To gaze out on our natural
landscape the answer becomes
simple,” says de Wit.
“Uncontaminated by human
neurosis and a distorted view of how
human settlement should sit with
our surroundings, this country’s
landscape and unique flora and fauna
provide a calm and deep-felt serenity
that must be among the worlds very
best.”
The challenge to design a new
garden for Ellerman House was a
chance to delve back in time for de
Wit, to recover the good and throw
S
Erf 828Phragmites australis
TASTING ROOM
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Art and Design Centre, 72 Loop Street, Cape Town
t
021 423 5641
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086 694 7450
c
082 485 3077
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[email protected]
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Sculptures
de
Regarded as one of the most outstanding
pianists of his time and the subject of the Oscar
award-winning film Shine, David Helfgott
gave an exclusive performance for Ellerman
House guests on 17th September. The musical
extravaganza was accompanied by a dinner
prepared by acclaimed chefs and paired
with Waterford Wines. The sounds of the
finest silver, china and crystal mingled with
Helfgott’s brilliance on the piano as a select
group of guests enjoyed a remarkable evening.
Helfgott is currently a third of the way
through a grueling world tour and returned
to South Africa in early September to perform
– a country he ‘loves passionately’. Helfgott’s
musical career, paralleled at times with
crippling bouts of mental illness, is well known
and well documented. The critically acclaimed
film Shine (1996), inspired by Helfgott’s life,
made a tremendous impact on audiences
around the globe.
He suffered long periods of hospitalisation
during the 1970’s. The greatest crisis for
Helfgott at this time was the loss of his ‘inner’
music but he remembers the day the music
came back: “The fog lifted, I could hear again
… I survived.” As Helfgott re-emerged from
this decade of darkness, so did his career. He
met and married his wife Gillian and with the
help of his promoter, Mike Parry, embarked on
a series of sell-out concerts in Australia.
At the beginning of 2009, a 2.7 metre
sculpture of a piano was dedicated to Helfgott
in recognition of his courage, contribution to
music and work in the community. It’s the work
of internationally recognised sculpture John
Van Der Kolk and is placed in Bellingen Council
Park in Melbourne, Australia.
All who attended Helfgott’s soirée at
Ellerman House will be sure to remember the
evening as a truly unique experience
– a remarkable man in a remarkable place.
Statue
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Book Review
Tate Modern Artists: Antony Gormley
Published by Tate Publishing, 2010
Sculpture is an act of faith in life, in its
continuity – Antony Gormley
As a consummate showman, Antony
Gormley has sought a broad stage and
received even broader acclaim for his
iconic projects. His work, ranging from
the fourth plinth in London’s Trafalgar
Square to the remote Outback in
Australia, generates lively debate and
has cemented his place among today’s
leading contemporary artists.
Gormley’s large-scale projects such as the
Angel of the North at Gateshead, the 100
cast-iron sculptures placed on a British
beach for Another Place, and the 51
stark black steel statues in the Outback
for Inside Australia, has taken his work
beyond the gallery to engage the public
in previously untried settings.
In this survey of the artist’s work, Martin
Caiger-Smith examines Gormley’s
influences and assesses his relationship
to minimalism, arte povera, land and
environmental art, and his response to
the challenge of engaging with figurative
sculpture at the beginning of the
twenty-first century. With an in-depth
analysis of six key works and over 100
colour illustrations, this is the perfect
introduction to a widely respected
contemporary artist.
– www.tate.org.uk
Georgina Gratix
Painters, especially in the Western tradition
of easel painting, have long learned their craft by copying
works either by their teachers or by established masters. How
suitable then that this first solo show by Georgina Gratrix takes
as its root conceptual underpinning the reworking of existing
‘masterpieces’. However, these are not slavish copies, attempting
to capture something of the aura of existing works but deeply
conceptually rooted comments and critiques not just on individual
works but on the very notions of what ‘great painting is… or may
be. The recent critical, curatorial and academic celebration of
painting, after a short (in historical terms) hiatus when painting
was declared ‘dead’ by some and outmoded by many more has
seen a celebration of new and intellectually intriguing approaches
and techniques by a younger generation of artists who, while
they have definitely been informed and no doubt influenced by
the ‘DOA’ arguments, have resisted this premature burial and
demonstrated to us that perhaps it was not a case that painting was
dead but rather that it hadn’t really begun living yet.
While one can easily (and cynically) argue that perhaps the
‘triumph of painting’ (as the influential Saatchi Gallery exhibition
of 2005 titled it) or it’s nascent re-emergence may be the result
of market factors which have seen a major upturn in a booming
art market and where things that hang on walls sell better than
conceptual etherealities, it is clear that as rarely before painting is
taking centre-stage in the world’s art consciousness: both to the
‘in-crowd’ and the general public.
Gratrix’s source-list for her body of work (or bodies of work,
for there are several distinct but inter-related groupings in
Master Copy is large and ranges from the acknowledged heroes
of Modernism to much- loved English landscapists through to
lesser-known or local producers. In drawing from all these she
simultaneously undermines the assumptions of what characterises
a masterpiece whilst still drawing on received ideas about who
is the ‘top of the pops’ (or top of the masters). Thus her Women
Wallpaper series leaches much of the painterly meaning from
the work of male genii of Modernism (tellingly from iconic high
spots in the history of modern art where women are the subject
of the male gaze and the artist’s brush) and leave us just with the
relative colour values and proportion of those works in images
that condense and redefine their works into … well … wallpaper.
Thus the subject has become the subjector. Significantly these
works are all created at the same scale as the original work.
Another nod towards the history of art consists in the variety
of media that the artist has chosen to employ in Master Copy.
Here we find most of the hierarchy of materials that painters
have negotiated in the history of easel painting, from oils through
acrylics to tempera as well as paper collage, pencil crayons, and
even felt-tip pens. In addition there are a number of monotypes;
significantly this last-mentioned being a print-making technique
that produces a unique exemplar. This seems to be no mere
display of virtuosity on the part of Gratrix (which in many ways
it is) but perhaps also displays (through the counter-intuitive
and thus critical manner in which she engages with these media)
a demand upon the viewer to re-assess the assumptions that
underlie these materials and processes.
Indeed, Gratrix has challenged herself in the production of
these works. In some ways it would seem that Gratrix has taken
the entire corpus of painting and turned it into her playground:
taking it seriously but not being scared to have fun with it and
not fearing the results of poking it in the ribs (or pulling its tail).
Neither is she scared of ‘bad art’ (or at least art that has been
declared ‘bad’ by experts, self-styled or otherwise) or kitsch. By
drawing on the vast range of sources and mashing these up with
the sacrosanct icons of high art she reveals that the New Painting
is at once part of, and also draws its inspiration from, the vibrant
popular culture that surrounds both artists and their viewers.
This is, I would argue, what gives Georgina Gratrix her
undeniable contemporary edge.
– Andrew Lamprecht
Global News
USA
Jeff Koons paints BMW
Jeff Koons is the seventeenth artist to design one of
a series of BMW Art Cars. His artwork was applied to a race spec E92
BMW M3 which competed at the 2010 24 Hours of Le Mans with BMW
Motorsport. The car was revealed to the public in Paris at The Pompidou
Centre in June 2010. The BMW Art Car Project was introduced by
the French race car driver and auctioneer Hervé Poulain, who wanted
to invite artists to create a canvas on an automobile. In 1975 Poulain
commissioned American artist and friend Alexander Calder to paint the
first BMW Art Car.
According to Thomas Girst, who has been in charge of the BMW Art
Cars project since 2004, the purpose of the project has changed over time:
“In the beginning the cars were raced. There wasn’t much of a public
relations effort around them. Since then, some of the Art Cars have been
used in advertisements to show that BMW is a player in the arts.”
Many renowned artists have created BMW Art Cars, including David
Hockney, Jenny Holzer, Roy Lichtenstein, Robert Rauschenberg, Frank
Stella, and Andy Warhol. To date, a total of 17 BMW Art Cars, based on
both racing and regular production vehicles, have been created.
united KINGDOM
Above: BMW Art Cars on display
at Grand Central Station, New York
and an illustration for the design by
Koons (inset).
japan
Above: Vandalism or art?
Banksy’s Street Art
“Banksy does not produce
greeting cards or print photo-canvases
or paint commissions or sell freshly
baked bagels. Banksy cannot be found
on Facebook/Twitter/Myspace, etc.”
This is what Banksy’s website states.
So who is Banksy? His name may be
familiar to millions around the world
but the identity of the British-born
street artist still remains a mystery,
despite reported ‘outings’ in the British
press. “I am unable to comment on
who may or may not be Banksy, but
anyone described as being ‘good at
drawing’ doesn’t sound like Banksy to
me.” he is reported to have stated on
his website. Rumours aside, there is a
wealth of information on the internet
pertaining to Banksy’s work, as well as
a number of books published. His latest
project, a documentary and Banksyfilm
production Exit Through the Giftshop
billed as, “the worlds first street art
disaster movie”, went on general release
in March 2010. So is Banksy’s work vandalism or
is it art? According to Peter Gibson, a
spokesperson for Keep Britain Tidy,
Banksy’s work is simple: vandalism.
Diane Shakespeare, an official for
the same organisation, was quoted
as saying: “We are concerned that
Banksy’s street art glorifies what is
essentially vandalism”. Graffiti laws in
Great Britain carry stiff penalties, so it is
unsurprising he wishes to remain one of
the most prolific, yet anonymous, street
artists of the 21st century. But graffiti
war is looming on London’s streets. An
apparent feud has developed between
Banksy and fellow graffiti artist King
Robbo, after Banksy painted over a
24-year old Robbo piece on the banks of
London’s Regent Canal. In retaliation,
several Banksy pieces in London and
other cities around the world have been
painted over by ‘Team Robbo’. Could
this be the start of a visual dismantling
of Banksy’s work? Or perhaps a joint
collaboration to court publicity for both
artists? One thing is for certain, we’ll
never know.
–www.banksy.co.uk
Above: Moving art takes the stage: Lady Gaga is a fan.
Art on the move
Wood, Metal, Plastic? Hardly
the most comfortable of materials to wear
but Japanese fashion designer Yuima
Nakazato is no stranger to incorporating
them into his award-winning designs.
Nakazato trained at The Royal Academy
of Fine Art in Antwerp, Belgium,
graduating with an MA in Fashion Design
in 2008 with his “Wooden Dimension”
collection. He started his own brand three
seasons ago and although he presents in
Europe, his studio is based in Tokyo, a
far cry from the small village of Antwerp
where, he says, “You have no choice
but to use your imagination”. And it’s
Nakazato’s imagination for art you can
wear, which has not only won him a
number of prestigious awards; it also
caught the attention of the Pop world.
Both Fergie of the Black Eyed Peas and
Lady Gaga are fans of his unique stage
creations.
The concept of wearable art or “Art
wear” is nothing new. Contemporary
artists have always pushed the
conventional boundaries, turning an
everyday necessity into something
spectacularly Avant Garde.
A well known example is the ‘Electric
Dress’, a burqa-like costume consisting
mostly of variously coloured electrified
and painted light bulbs, enmeshed in a
tangle of wires, created in 1956 by the
Japanese Gutai artist Atsuko Tanaka. This
extreme garment was something like a
stage costume. Not really wearable in an
everyday, practical sense, it functioned
rather as part of a daring work of
performance art.
However, a more recent example of
practical wearable art, is seen with the
project called: Aliveshoes. Aliveshoes
artisans hand-craft individual shoes,
which are used in artistic installations.
Then each shoe in the installation has a
picture of the gestalt creation stitched
into its tongue. Later, the shoes are sold,
allowing individuals to wear what was
once an integral element of a piece of art.
Art on the move? Most definitely.