Dress Becomes Body

I recently posted about a Pierre Huyghe exhibition which questioned the boundaries and limitations we place on on space and objects. This got me to thinking about the concept behind Commes des Garcons' infamous S/S 1997 collection- often referred to as the "lumps and bumps" collection. My tutor advised me to check out the range after seeing some of my own somewhat "lumpy" designs and I think it's absolutely amazing.

Rei Kawakubo's philosophy for the range was Body meets Dress. Dress meets Body. Dress becomes Body. This questions the threshold between dress and our bodies- each one shapes the other so how is it possible to differentiate them? (image below from Caroline Evans, 2003, Fashion at the Edge: Spectacle, Modernity and Deathliness, Yale University Press, New Haven, p268)

(bottom two images from http://fagcity.blogspot.com/2009/10/lumps-and-bumps.html)

Event Horizon in New York

Antony Gormley's sculptures are striking explorations of how the human body can be represented and manipulated. For the past 25 years he has been investigating and transforming the human form- constructing it out of balls, cubes, rods, sticks, smooth, rough and broken metal, making then sit, move, jump or curl up in the foetal position. Sometimes they're humorous and ironic and other times they're poignant or despairing. The "Feeling Material" series is one of the most abstract and beautiful, with fluid lines creating motion and warmth in an otherwise cold, lifeless steel sculpture. (image from artnet.com)

Feeling Material XL

One of his current works is an installation of 31 life-size fibreglass and cast iron statues around Manhattan. Life-size is a literal description as they were cast from a mould of Gormely's own body. Four of them are positioned on pathways and sidewalks in order to interrupt the day to day traffic of the city. The rest are installed on the rooftops of architecturally renowned buildings in the Flatiron district. It is essentially a recreation of an earlier installation in and around London's South Bank in 2007. During that exhibition the police were overwhelmed by the calls from passersby who thought the statues were real people attempting suicide. It is yet to be seen whether the New Yorkers, not famous for their compassion, react in the same way. (images from the Event Horizon Blog)

There is a huge archive of Gormley's work on his website, so it's definitely worth checking out.