Friday, 16 January 2009

Friday 16th Jan: Head In The Clouds

Last year I was joined for a week by Bournemouth Fashion student Jessica Dance a.k.a Jessica Rabbit - hence her blog name "Lapin Dance Hall". She has been fiendishly busy since this time, getting her work debuted in Amelia's Magazine and now an installation at Top Shop, Oxford Street. A big pat on the back for such fantastic initiative, having secured both of these projects purely from pitches. A lesson in the classic mantra " if you don't ask, you don't get ".
So although this latest venture is named "Head In The Clouds", it is quite obviously the antithesis of Jessica's sensibility! She has teamed up with graphic artist Robert Francis Muller under the guise of "Get Müllerd and Dance". Combining disciplines from his 2D expertise and her sewing penchant, their work to date has been experiments in typography and scale within set/prop design. Their emphasis is always to have fun (right on!) and create works that offer escapism whilst simultaneously conveying a narrative. To see the set-up, it is on the lower ground floor by the fitting rooms for the next 2 weeks. Or alternatively watch this great time lapse documentation of the process.
I used to work with a set design team who did over-night installations whilst the store was shut to the public. There was a specific turn of phrase attached to these sessions of "getting Top-Shop lips" (symptom - dry,chapped). This is the "Achilles Heel" / "Tennis Elbow" ailment aligned to said job, brought about by sleep deprivation combined with over exposure to air conditioning and general de-hydration. I wonder if "Get Müllerd and Dance" have discovered the scurvy of Philip Greene's particular inflicted affliction?






Head in the Clouds by Get Müllerd & Dance (TOPSHOP, OXFORD STREET)

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