Fashion and art have a long-running relationship, and fashion exhibitions can attain an almost cult-like status. V&A’s sold-out “Alexander McQueen: Savage Beauty” or the recent retrospective of Martin Margiela in Paris are cases in point, opportunities to glimpse up close the bespoke artistry of each designer. Less often, one encounters an exhibition devoted to fashion in which the boundaries between display and commerce are willfully blurred, where works can be touched, tried on and purchased, and where a singular authorial signature is displaced by a collaborative ethos. But that is exactly what can be found at London’s Serpentine Galleries, in a new exhibition by Atelier E.B., the collaborative fashion label by the designerBecaLipscombe and the artist Lucy McKenzie, on view until January 6.With an exhibitions and public program that spans the fields of visual art, architecture, design, music and film, the Serpentine Galleries are well placed to make this first foray into a fashion-focused design exhibition. For “Atelier E.B: Passer-by,” Lipscombe and McKenzie transform the Galleries into three distinct interiors: a bespoke showroom for the label’s latest collection, “Jasperwear,” which visitors will be able to buy; a display of historic material, photography and objects, including works by the mannequin-maker Adel Rootstein and the artist Fred Wilson; and newly-commissioned works by artists such as Marc CamilleChaimowicz, TaubaAuerbach (the subject of a recent solo exhibition at the Serpentine) and Elizabeth Radcliffe.“Collaboration is an important part of Atelier E.B’s practice in every aspect,” said the exhibition’s curator, Melissa Blanchflower. “For example, if they’re making a silk shirt, they want to work with the best fabricators in order to produce the highest quality item.” She added: “Fashion becomes a vehicle for collaboration with people they’re fascinated by.” For the Serpentine, for example, Atelier E.B. has worked with the Italian company Ratti, one of the biggest producers of printed fabrics in the world. This will to bring external expertise and points of perspective into their work extends to the duo’s invitation for their contemporary peers and friends to produce new works for the show. “They have invited artists who they have collaborated with in the past, have had conversation with, but also people whose practice lends itself to similar sympathetic interests and has a resonance with clothes and fabric,” said Blanchflower.As much as the actual works or products, the trajectory of display itself is at the cruxof this exhibition. Lipscombe and McKenzie delve into the historical role of mannequins in the World Fairs of the early 20th century, such as the Pavillon de l’Elegance at the 1937 World Fair held in Paris, as well as in department stores, ethnographic museums and fashion retail stores under Communism. This “historical” section, as Blanchflower and the Serpentine team call it, ranges from “commercial window dressing by Gene Moore, the key window dresser for Tiffany’s in New York in the 1950s, through to artistswho will be sharing their practice, such as Allen Jones and his advertising campaign for Fogal Tights, or a video by Lynn Hershman Leeson.”With an app designed to accompany the exhibition, Atelier E.B. propels the history of display and our experience and interaction with fashion into the digital age. The duo aims both to offer a behind-the-scenes look at their own research on the “Jasperwear” collection, and to allow customers to share their own creative output on the platform. The result feels like a gesture of generosity that is conscious of, and appreciates, the porosity across creative fields. “The app gives an opportunity to connect,” said Blanchflower, “and brings the exhibition around even further to the fact that we now experience fashion through the interface of our phones.”This story appears in the October edition of Modern Painters magazine. https://www.blouinartinfo.com/ Founder: Louise Blouin
↧