Since the Seventies artist Cindy Sherman has successfully used her own image as her canvas without revealing her true identity. Though the artist is her own sole subject, her photographs are a world away from atypical self-portraiture.
A consummate performer, over the years Sherman has cast herself across the gamut of female identities – from Playboy centrefold and clown, to ageing American socialite and B-movie star.
For her latest turn at Spruth Magers in London, Sherman’s image is again central, but hidden. This time under a fresh array of bizarre costumes and ridiculous personas. Departing from her usual framed photograph format, she has embraced digital techniques, casting her eccentric characters onto large toile style murals, reminiscent of French parlour wallpaper.
Sherman’s surreal universe is populated by dowdy middle-aged women with broken ankles, and naked female warriors whose comedic appearance is at odds with the bucolic backdrop. Disturbing AND funny. This show is not to be missed.
Cindy Sherman is at Spruth Magers London from 12 January- 19 February spruethmagers.com
When Allen Ginsberg first performed his epic hallucinatory poem Howl in 1955, it was seen as the desolate cry of an awakening counterculture. A 3600 word hymn to drugs, jazz, love and lust that defined the Beat Generation.
“Angelheaded hipsters burning for the ancient heavenly connection to the starry dynamo in the machinery of night, who poverty and tatters and hollow-eyed and high sat up smoking in the supernatural darkness of cold-water flats floating across the tops of cities contemplating jazz.”
Ginsberg evoked the atmosphere of William S. Burroughs’ Junkie and laid the perceptual path for Jack Kerouac’s On The Road (picture above). But long before their literary apotheosis these Fifties radicals were for him, simply, “a bunch of friends looking to get published.” During those early days Ginsberg often photographed his contemporaries – young dispossessed men that would go on to define the subterranean era.
This January, a selection of Ginsberg’s images will be exhibited at the National Theatre in London. While the exhibition charts the infaltration of the Beats into the mainstream literary consciousness, it’s also a healthy reminder of the potency of youth.
Angelheaded Hipsters: Images of the Beat Generation is at the National Theatre from 24 January – 20 March 2011 nationaltheatre.org.uk
It’s your last chance to see Graham Little’s virtuoso drawings at the Alison Jacques Gallery this weekend. His pencil on paper portraits inspired by old fashion magazine shoots are beguiling and romantic. Taking inspiration from the pages of vintage Vogue and Harpers, Little breathes a painterly quality into what were once glossy photographs. In doing so, he transforms fashion models into timeless beauties.
Little’s muses are all about muted colours and thoughtful gazes, proving that even in our crowded visual world we can still unearth new stories and narratives from archival images. These softly feminine women live in a world outside of fashion and time. Catch them before they disappear.
After high profile fashion pairings such as Lanvin for H&M and Valentino for Gap, perhaps it was only natural that beauty companies too should want a piece of the collaborative action. Cult and cultured Aussie beauty brand Aesop were one of the first – teaming up with clothing brand A.P.C to create a special hand washing detergent earlier in 2010. Then came Marchesa and Le Metier De Beaute who produced a capsule collection of palettes and lipglosses; subtle and subliminal, the perfect accompaniment to a Marchesa evening gown.
Now, there’s Marcel Wanders for MAC, a capsule collection, only available online (maccosmetics.co.uk) that takes make up packaging design to the next level. The beautiful baroque curvilinear packaging stands in marked contrast to the minimalist Nineties design of regular MAC products. These items look like glossy black chess pieces rather than an aesthetes’ make up arsenal.
Wanders claims he was inspired by Vermeer and, Girl With a Pearl Earring and as a result some of the colours are curiously naturalistic. For example there are light gold and golden nude lipglosses that add very lucent party season sparkle to your face. “Designing beauty packaging immediately made me think of the painterly connection,” says Wanders of his work. Indeed the suitably artistic brush roll (£60) is one of the standout items.
Whilst we love Wanders for MAC – it’s doing something truly innovative with product design, more collaborations are on their way. February 1st sees Milly for Clinique hit counters (a palette designed by the cutesy floral NYC brand), and later in spring there’s Tibi for Bobbi Brown, another niche fashion brand allied to a beauty monolith. For now, December, it’s all about Marcel Wanders for us.
Photographer Bridget Fleming spent the summer of 2009 on her bike, cruising downtown Manhattan with friends, camera in hand. What started as a series of video clips destined for a short film reel, became the project Downtownfrombehind.com – stills of cyclists, shot from behind.
“Shooting from behind gives both street and subject the opportunity to share the limelight,” says Fleming. “I guess it’s a less self-indulgent portrait for the subject and an opportunity for the audience to see and feel the New York streetscape.” All of her shots are planned and many of her subjects are friends,or, as the project grew, friends of friends, chefs, designers, architects, musicians and stylists.
She continues: “In most cases subjects are driven by time of day, and light, as I work my way through downtown. More recently I’ve had people ask to be included in the project, that, and I’m working on several bigger group shots with larger organisations.” Fleming, it seems, is The Sartorialist on wheels.
To tell the story of the last forty years of fashion is no mean feat. And yet, in Histoire Idéale de la Mode Contempraine at Les Arts Décoratifs in Paris, curator Olivier Salliard has done just that, conveying fashion’s changing moods, trends and attitudes with ease. Now in its second instalment, Les Années 1990-2000, the show is a master class in display. Mirrors guide the eye from collar to cuff, and onto the next collection, garments float on mid-air mannequins and captions take the form of labelled leaves of translucent paper artfully strewn across the museum floor.
Arranged via aesthetic rather than chronology, viewers move from Belgian deconstruction and Japanese minimalism, to Martine Sitbon’s grunge. The first instalment of the exhibition (which is now closed) kicked off with Yves Saint Laurent’s 1971 collection ‘Liberation’, commemorating the birth of pret-a-porter. Les Années 1990-2000 goes on to explore the rise – and delightful abandonment – of function in fashion. Exit through the gift shop via the drama of Alexander McQueen and Viktor & Rolf.
Histoire Idéale de la Mode Contempraine, vol. II: Les Années 1990-2000 is at Les Arts Décoratifs, Paris until 8th May 2011 lesartsdecoratifs.fr
Images courtesy of Guy Marineau and Philippe Brazil. Words by Sarah Smith
The interface between literature and perfume has never been exploited fully by perfumers until very recently. Perhaps it was only natural that Frederic Malle, who has always described himself as a perfume ‘publisher’ and his noses as authors, would be one of the first to exploit the connection. His latest fragrance ‘Portrait of a Lady’ (nose: Dominique Ropion) is just the sort of elevated, elegant and cultivated oriental that the heroine of Henry James’ 1881 novel, Isabel Archer, might have worn as she undertook her grand tour of Paris, Florence and Rome. Malle describes the smell, a composition including rose essence, cinnamon, clove, patchouli and incense as, ‘aristocratic’. And it certainly has an archness, a transcendence, a haute couture poise about it.
Compare and contrast with Byredo’s ‘Baudelaire’, inspired directly by the olfactive ambience of LesFleurs Du Mal, which has juniper berry, black pepper, incense, leather, patchouli and black amber in its saturnine pasticcio. Like Malle, Byredo’s Ben Gorham comes across as something of a bibliophile – he has a scented candle in his collection called ‘Bibliotheque’ with peach plum, violet, leather and vanilla numbered in its accord. A gorgeous scent to waft around in the environs of your old books.
Frederic Malle ‘Portrait Of A Lady’ is £115.00/50ml from Les Senteurs (020 7730 2322), lessenteurs.com and Byredo ‘Baudelaire’ is £115.00/100ml from Liberty (020 7734 1234), liberty.co.uk
Twin“s fashion director Celestine Cooney finds her way onto Vice Style“s new “Love Blogging” short film series. We might be biased, but we think it”s really bloody good.
Celestine teams up with fresh-faced bloggers Alice, Letty & Lousie (pictured above), who have cleverly used their own eponymous blogs to launch play casino their HOT & COOL fanzine….
As promotional stunts go, Nike’s Destroy to Create campaign rules. Corralling a whole gang of contributors – many of them (like Harry Malt) from the Twin family – to be a part of a special merger of art, sport, music and mayhem marking the launch of their Destroyer jackets. Lucky for those who weren’t there to see the chaos unfold on the night, Niall O’Brien filmed the proceedings.
The ‘Destroy to Create’ artworks are currently on show at 1948, Arches 477- 478 Batemans Row, Shoreditch now.
Canadian musician Leslie Feist is known for her collaborations with bands like Kings of Convenience and Broken Social Scene, but it is as a solo artist that the former rapper turned songstress has found fame. When three years ago her third album ‘The Reminder’ sold over a million copies, Peaches’ former flatmate suddenly found herself everywhere; from Sesame Street to iPod adverts.
Now a documentary entitled ‘Look at What the Light Did Now’ illuminates the creative process behind the album. Through flickering Super-8 footage shot while recording ‘The Reminder’ in a crumbling French mansion and her electric live performances the film is a beautiful and poetic insight into Feist’s artistic world.
But it is her partnerships with the people she calls her ‘amplifiers’ that pull her vision into reality – from shadow puppeteers to a firework conducting video director, as well as her many musical collaborators. Feist says: “I would feel a little bit like the peacock. Ultimately the peacock’s just this scrawny bird but there’s this beautiful fan around it, and it distracts from the scrawny bird and is this beautiful thing that’s bigger than it.” The result is a creative mosaic that sings sweetly of artistic truth.
‘Look at What the Light Did Now’ is at the ICA 3 December 2010 listentofeist
We are near saturation point when it comes to pop-up shops, but have an insatiable appetite for pop-up art spaces. Flash Projects is the latest photography project from the really rather good James Hyman Gallery, who consistently impress with their selection of vintage photography (take this paparazzi shot of Bridget Bardot, top). Now, the gallery will take their archive of prints on the countercultures of the Fifties through Seventies to spaces all over London with exhibitions and limited-edition sales.
Flash Projects’ delicious debut is a collaboration between photographer and artist Jean Clemmer and Franco-Spanish couturier Paco Rabanne entitled, Canned Candies The Nudes of Jean Clemmer (images above and below), a body of work originally produced in 1969. Rabanne’s wicked ‘unwearable’ fashions, crafted from unconventional materials like metal, are the perfect match for Clemmer’s hazy aesthetic. The little-known Clemmer (1926-2001) was immersed in painting, music and photography, and worked as Salvador Dali’s personal photographer for two decades.
The photographic series is seemingly bathed in a silver glow, and recalls the sci-fi spirit of Barbarella (1968), for which Rabanne was costume designer. Clunky chainmail get-ups deemed risqué at the time seem just as modern and fresh now (see young designer Fannie Schiavoni’s chainmail harnesses Fannieschiavoni.com). Canned Candies is a climatic collection that’s the result of an early art and high fashion clash. Invest now.
Canned Candies. The Nudes of Jean Clemmer runs from the 26th November – 18th December at Flash Projects, 8 Kingly Street, London W1B 5PG. flash-projects.co.uk
Francesca Woodman took her first photograph aged 13. The self-portrait reveals a young woman bathed in light, with her face averted from the cameras’ gaze (below, top left). Despite her years, the image set the tone for the remainder of a brief, but brilliant photographic career.
Woodman studied at the Rhode Island School of Design from 1975 – 1979, producing a prolific body of work. A solitary figure in life and art, she was the frequent, lone subject of her images. Before her untimely death, when she jumped from a Manhattan high rise at the age of 22, Woodman generated an archive of 800 images. This week a number of them go on show at the Victoria Miro gallery in London, including rarely seen colour works. The exhibition is a taster of a major retrospective at San Francisco’s MoMA, which ultimately lands at the New York Guggenheim in 2012. Such mainstream recognition has taken time, though Woodman’s contemporary influence spans from Cindy Sherman to Nan Goldin. This is a show that doesn’t need to shout, it very quietly commands the attention.
Francesca Woodman is at the Victoria Miro until 22nd January 2011 Victoria Miro
All images: The Estate of Francesca Woodman, Courtesy George and Betty Woodman and Victoria Miro Gallery.
Fashion house of fun Boudicca are hosting their third annual cake off tomorrow. All friends of the brand are welcome to showcase their culinary prowess – but entries must be received by 1.30pm. This year’s judges include ice cream makers Leila & Kitty, and 8 and 10 year old Jonny and Mercy. Points are scored for aesthetics as well as taste. So start perfecting your cake walk now.
Love art but can’t afford it? Recently there’s been a spate of initiatives to make sure you don’t have to starve yourself to be able to take home a piece of art. Outline Editions is one of them. Founded by arts, lifestyle and features editor Bill Tuckey and curator Camilla Parsons, Outline Editions recognises that graphic design is increasingly in demand as a new affordable wall art.
Following the success of their debut pop-up shop in May, Outline Editions are back with another. The temporary gallery, housed in a former second-hand record store on Soho’s Berwick Street will be a feature in itself: the window and floor graphics are produced by designer and illustrator Kate Moross.
Limited-edition prints from their nature-inspired autumn collection Into the Forest, will be on sale at smile-inducing prices – from £15 to £185. Take in the neon landscapes of new-wave graphic artist Anthony Burrill, or marvel at the intricate detailing in fashion illustrator Klaus Haapaniemi’s designs. Fancy an even more modest purchase? T-shirts, books, vinyls and other products will also be on sale from the likes of Kate Moross or Supermundane.
The temporary store is open until 31st January 2011 at 94 Berwick Street, London W1F 0QF. Open Tuesday-Sunday, 12 – 6.30pm www.outline-editions.co.uk
We’re excited. Our most lovely third issue is coming soon. To celebrate, we’re having a little shindig with Urban Outfitters (our new stockists) in Berlin.
It all happens on the 11th November at the Soju-Bar.
To join the fun RSVP: urbantwin@fakepr.de
When Japanese visionaries Issey Miyake, Rei Kawakubo and Yohji Yamamoto stormed the catwalks in the early Eighties they redefined fashion. The androgyny of their architectural shapes not only blew apart how women in Europe dressed, but succeeded in turning fashion into art.
Thirty years on and Japanese fashion continues to challenge Western notions of beauty and the Barbican’s new exhibition, ‘Future Beauty: 30 Years of Japanese Fashion’ charts the history and impact of the country’s inimitable style.
As Kate Bush, Head of Barbican Art Galleries says: “The tight silhouettes of Western couture were jettisoned for new fluid shapes. Out went the magnificent ornament and extravagant techniques of the post-war tradition and in came a stark, monochrome palette and an entirely new decorative language – holes, rips, frays and tears – emerging from the stuff of fabric itself.”
An epic journey through Japanese fashion history, featuring over 100 beautiful pieces by labels such as Comme des Garcons and Junya Watanabe – courtesy of the Kyoto Costume Institute – as well as catwalk footage and archive interviews, the exhibition dazzles the senses. Spanning the grand masters to the new radicals of Japanese design, it’s the story of an avant-garde fashion culture where breathtaking beauty and innovation are all part of the same rapid beating heart.
‘Future Beauty: 30 Years of Japanese Fashion’ is at the Barbican Centre until 6 February 2010. Barbican.org/JapaneseFashion
Images by Lyndon Douglas. Words by Boudicca Fox-Leonard.
This month Twin’s art editor Francesca Gavin curates ‘Syncopation’, a ten-day Berlin exhibition that explores personal notions of selfhood. Gavin’s work as a curator, editor and writer is already varied, yet: “My true alternative self is a musician,” she explains.
Gavin grew up making music, performing below fleapit cinemas; steeped in the embrace of jazz and folk. Her grandmother’s record label Dial Recordings, which released Charlie Parker and Mile Davis’ records, sparked a love of soul, jazz, hip hop and black music culture and its relation to art.
The show presents the work of artists and musicians Cory Arcangel, Frankie Martin, Jeremy Shaw, Matt Stokes (pictured, top) and Mark Titchner, and is one part of a bigger exhibition – Despina Stokou’s project ‘D12’. Like the Detroit rap group who failed to find twelve members, instead asking six MC’s to create alteregos, Stokou has invited six artists to showcase theirs.
Head to the private view to catch a live lounge jazz performance by Gavin, accompanied by Julien Quentin. The party continues at Bierhaus Urban from 11pm with Jeremy Shaw and Gavin on the decks. Deeply buried true selves may just be revealed.
Jayson Scott Musson, How to Hip Hop, 2010, video still.
21.10-31.10, Grimmuseum, Fichte Straße 2, 10967, Berlin, open daily 2-7pm. grimmuseum.com.
The after party is on the 21.10, Bierhaus Urban, Urban Straße 126, corner Graefe Straße
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