Wednesday, 1 June 2011

Weds 1st June: Arnhem Mode Biennale - Wendy & Jim





The largest section of the main exhibition in the derelict factory location, was given up to designer's reaction to Joff's brief. He approached a hand picked selection with an open invitation to translate their vision of an imaginary scenario ......... if everything fell dark - what "collection" would appear when the light came back on. His hope was to challenge typical atmospheres, elements and visions of what a collection could be. In some cases, no clothes appeared at all.......

From overhearing a visitor's reactionary comment on Yoshikazu Yamagata's crochet wearable houses from 2007 "Is This Fashion?" - Joff wanted the 2011 agenda to explore exactly what realms the creative art reaches. Ann Sophie Back made a giant water tank in the shape of a dildo with one dress floating inside the solution, A.F Vandervorst made a life size candle of a girl lying in a hospital bed..........
Wendy & Jim literally used lighting in the form of neon strips and devised not a wearable home but a habitat to encase garments and ceramic skull parfum bottles.......

"The teepee functions as a symbol of a couture house, the branch office of a designer. It is the container of the designer's vision, yet at the same time it represents it. The teepee is a sculpture, a room; as part of a collectively cherished childhood memory it invites you to enter and partake in the action. The teepee becomes an exhibition within an exhibition, a dressing room" - Wendy & Jim

Whatever the reason, this purple plexiglass teepee was totally cosmic and one I would love to see at Glastonbury ......... complete with the drift-wood skate boards inside.

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