Nick Knight set up the website SHOWstudio with a friend, Peter Saville, as a means of showing work not as a means of selling the product but simply for the love of art. SHOWstudio is like a melting pot of all things fashion, from photography and film to dance and music to fine art and technology creating a much deeper understanding of the world of fashion.
The first room I came to in the exhibition was a room of mirrors, slightly disconcerted I made my way through and stopped and paused at the exiting door, wondering ‘why?’. The idea of seeing myself in one mirror after a hectic day is scary enough, but seeing myself from every angle a multitude of times, well that’s another story. But then it occurred to me, that’s what the fashion media is all about, scrutiny and being exposed. Although I was the only one in the mirrored room, I couldn’t help but feel insanely exposed and self-conscience in this small mirrored world.
I then moved into the Naomi Campbell room, with a huge digitally sculptured 3-D statue of the world renowned model. The piece was quite incredible really, I don’t know why I was drawn to it, but there was something about the precision and flawless appearance of it that caught my eye.
After seeing various other collaborative pieces including ‘Sweet’ with Jane How and ‘Past, Present and Couture’ with John Galliano, I came across ‘Transformer: The Bridegroom Stripped Bare’ by McQueen, where he cuts, drapes and dissembles the model’s garments as he just stands there and then gets white paint and glitter thrown all over him. I had seen this video on the website a while back and at the time I didn’t think much of it, but last year one of the modules I was doing I included a lot of McQueen’s work and have a much greater understanding of the designer and what he’s about. So watching the video in the exhibition, I saw it in a totally different light. McQueen is not afraid of making a shock statement which I like and find very refreshing- he doesn’t hold back, the idea of this bridegroom getting stripped bare, covered in paint, being bound to bricks and being gagged goes against the typical ideas of a wedding day.
The last two pieces that really stood out to me were two pieces which made you look at models in a different way. The first was ‘Phonecarte’, where there were four telephones and on each one Karen Elson, Lily Cole, Irina Lazareanu and Lily Donaldson, left answer phone messages. The messages were short but regular updates on their days during various fashion weeks including fittings, being backstage, travelling around the cities and after parties. The other piece was ‘More Beautiful Women’ which was based on Warhol’s 1964 piece ‘Thirteen Most Beautiful Women’. It is an ongoing project in which Nick Knight puts iconic models, past and present, in front of a video camera and tells them to just sit looking at the camera for 3 minutes. Some of the models, including Twiggy and Claudia managed the experience without too much awkwardness, however some of the others, including Linda, clearly found the 120 seconds completely unbearable. I found it quite interesting though, I couldn’t work out why some of the models found it so uncomfortable sitting in front of a camera, modelling is all about acting and being watched, so why were some of them so awkward? The one big difference between modelling and this experience, which I can imagine would be quite daunting, is that the model isn’t being directed by the photographer. I really enjoyed these two pieces, as it makes you look at the models in a totally different way. Models are renowned for being silent beauties and so it is always unexpected when you hear them speaking, also hearing the messages which were quite personal, but on quite mundane topics (Lily Donaldson mentioning about the weather), and seeing some of the models feel so uncomfortable sitting still, being watched for 3 minutes, meant that you felt you could reach out to them and realise that they are just regular people, albeit very tall and thin and insanely beautiful, but they are just regular people.
All in all I really enjoyed the gallery, I like the website of SHOWstudio, so I knew I would like this exhibition, but I enjoyed it more than I expected I would. I really liked the way it made models appear human, and really showed the relationship between art and fashion and how it around you every second of every day, whether you are aware of it or not.
The first room I came to in the exhibition was a room of mirrors, slightly disconcerted I made my way through and stopped and paused at the exiting door, wondering ‘why?’. The idea of seeing myself in one mirror after a hectic day is scary enough, but seeing myself from every angle a multitude of times, well that’s another story. But then it occurred to me, that’s what the fashion media is all about, scrutiny and being exposed. Although I was the only one in the mirrored room, I couldn’t help but feel insanely exposed and self-conscience in this small mirrored world.
I then moved into the Naomi Campbell room, with a huge digitally sculptured 3-D statue of the world renowned model. The piece was quite incredible really, I don’t know why I was drawn to it, but there was something about the precision and flawless appearance of it that caught my eye.
After seeing various other collaborative pieces including ‘Sweet’ with Jane How and ‘Past, Present and Couture’ with John Galliano, I came across ‘Transformer: The Bridegroom Stripped Bare’ by McQueen, where he cuts, drapes and dissembles the model’s garments as he just stands there and then gets white paint and glitter thrown all over him. I had seen this video on the website a while back and at the time I didn’t think much of it, but last year one of the modules I was doing I included a lot of McQueen’s work and have a much greater understanding of the designer and what he’s about. So watching the video in the exhibition, I saw it in a totally different light. McQueen is not afraid of making a shock statement which I like and find very refreshing- he doesn’t hold back, the idea of this bridegroom getting stripped bare, covered in paint, being bound to bricks and being gagged goes against the typical ideas of a wedding day.
The last two pieces that really stood out to me were two pieces which made you look at models in a different way. The first was ‘Phonecarte’, where there were four telephones and on each one Karen Elson, Lily Cole, Irina Lazareanu and Lily Donaldson, left answer phone messages. The messages were short but regular updates on their days during various fashion weeks including fittings, being backstage, travelling around the cities and after parties. The other piece was ‘More Beautiful Women’ which was based on Warhol’s 1964 piece ‘Thirteen Most Beautiful Women’. It is an ongoing project in which Nick Knight puts iconic models, past and present, in front of a video camera and tells them to just sit looking at the camera for 3 minutes. Some of the models, including Twiggy and Claudia managed the experience without too much awkwardness, however some of the others, including Linda, clearly found the 120 seconds completely unbearable. I found it quite interesting though, I couldn’t work out why some of the models found it so uncomfortable sitting in front of a camera, modelling is all about acting and being watched, so why were some of them so awkward? The one big difference between modelling and this experience, which I can imagine would be quite daunting, is that the model isn’t being directed by the photographer. I really enjoyed these two pieces, as it makes you look at the models in a totally different way. Models are renowned for being silent beauties and so it is always unexpected when you hear them speaking, also hearing the messages which were quite personal, but on quite mundane topics (Lily Donaldson mentioning about the weather), and seeing some of the models feel so uncomfortable sitting still, being watched for 3 minutes, meant that you felt you could reach out to them and realise that they are just regular people, albeit very tall and thin and insanely beautiful, but they are just regular people.
All in all I really enjoyed the gallery, I like the website of SHOWstudio, so I knew I would like this exhibition, but I enjoyed it more than I expected I would. I really liked the way it made models appear human, and really showed the relationship between art and fashion and how it around you every second of every day, whether you are aware of it or not.
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