1  

Dr.  Kathryn  Simon    

Juried  selection  College  Art  Association  Annual  Conference  2012   Skin:  The  confluence  of  art,  culture  and  fashion    Chairs:  Kathryn  Simon  PhD,  Parsons,  The  New  School  for  Design,  New  York;    Dr.  Vicki    Karaminas,  University  of  Technology,  Sydney,  Australia    Invited  Panelists:  Dr.  Valerie  Steele,  Head  Curator,  Director,  FIT,  New  York  Nathalie  Khan,  Lecturer,  Royal  College  of  Art,  London  J  Morgan  Puett,  Mildred’s  Lane,  Pennsylvania  Dr.  Vicki  Karaminas,  University  of  Technology  (UTS),  Sydney,  Australia  Dr.  Kathryn  Simon,  Parsons,  The  New  School  for  Design,  New  York    Abstract:  

Through  an  examination  of  movements  in  contemporary  fashion  this  panel  sets  out  to  explore  happenings  in  fashion,  and  its  relationship  to  art  within  a  twenty-­‐first  century  context,  looking  at  the  influence  of  contemporary  culture  and  a  critical  analysis  of  the  parallel  between  art  and  fashion.  Since  the  1990’s  fashion  has  been  affected  by  a  continuing  wave  of  post  structuralist  and  performance  based  work  often  falling  outside  of  traditional  industry  constraints.  We’ll  focus  on  these  new  positions  and  creative  endeavors,  presenting  curators,  designers,  filmmakers,  and  theorists  discussing  this  evolving  visual  language.  These  issues  include  designing  clothing  for  wear  versus  installation,  integrating  multi  media  in  curatorial  work  and  exhibition  filmmaking  and  media  as  fashion,  formulating  new  identities  in  fashion,  performance  as  fashion.  “What  happens  when  fashion  transcends  or  exceeds  a  strictly  formal  market  based  economy  and  sets  up  shop  elsewhere?”  “What  is  fashion  within  twenty-­‐first  century  frameworks  as  fashion  begins  to  make  it’s  way  into  museums,  and  art  begins  to  appropriate  fashion  as  a  medium?”  “When  fashion  is  freed  from  a  strictly  voyeuristic  experience,  what  does  it  become?”      This  paper  was  re-­‐edited  lightly  for  a  written  paper  with  additional  footnotes  that  were  of  course  not  

included  in  the  spoken  panel.  The  visual  presentation  was  part  of  the  presentation.    

 

SKIN:  The  confluence  of  art,  culture  and  fashion,  was  the  panel  I  chaired  at  The  College  Art  

Association,  with  a  group  of  invited  participants  to  converse  on  new  movements  happening  in  

fashion.  It  was  the  first  time  fashion  was  being  presented  at  this  historically  significant  

conference,  not  as  aspect  of  art  but  in  its  own  right.    

 

SKIN:  The  confluence  of  art,  culture  and  fashion  presented  an  invitation  to  rethink  the  concept  

of  fashion  in  order  to  place  it  within  a  distinctly  21st  century  context.    

 

The  following  visual  is  passage  into  some  of  the  emerging  fashion  narratives    

https://vimeo.com/35431563  

  2  

Through  an  examination  of  new  movements  in  contemporary  fashion  this  panel  sets  out  

to  explore  what  is  happening  in  fashion  and  its  relationship  to  art  within  a  twenty-­‐first  

century  context,  looking  at  the  influence  of  contemporary  culture  and  a  critical  analysis  

of  the  parallel  between  art  and  fashion.      

   

Since  the  1990’s  fashion  has  been  affected  by  a  continuing  wave  of  increasingly  

performance  based  work  that  often  falls  outside  of  traditional  industry  constraints.  This  

panel  will  focus  on  some  of  these  new  positions  and  creative  endeavors  by  

presentations  that  discuss  this  evolving  visual  language  where  nomadic  flows  are  often  

expressed  best  through  the  medium  of  fashion.    

 

The  speakers  will  be  presenting  their  view  into  various  facets  of  this  newly  emerging,  

multidisciplinary  discourse  arising  out  of  a  field  whose  major  concern  until  the  1990’s  

was  the  ‘industry’  -­‐-­‐the  manufacture,  and  production  of  clothing—and  its  consumption.    

 

By  late  1997  it  was  clear  something  big  was  happening  in  fashion.  PUNK,  Grunge  

Aesthetics  and  The  postmodern  moment,  was  giving  way  to  a  larger  shift-­‐-­‐  the    

deterritorialization  of  fashion  was  well  underway.    

 

 On  the  streets  of  New  York  or  the  deserts  of  Tehran  -­‐  there  is  a  visual  read  informed  by  

the  impacts  of  daily  living,  nurtured  by  a  society  in  process,  with  rapid  shifts  in  all  

respects.  Be  it  a  proliferation  of  ideas  and  new  ground  brought  on  by  a  long  tail  of  small  

niche  markets  that  are  multiplying  at  a  dazzling  rate  as  a  result  of  social  networks  and  

technology,  or  the  interplay  between  virtual,  mediated,  and  physical  worlds  (sometimes  

colliding)  and  intense  mobility.      

 

Over  the  past  20  years  there  have  been  an  increasing  number  of  artists  working  with  

and  clothing  as  a  art  medium—in  this  regard  it  is  not  the  elevation  of  the  craftsmanship  

  3  

that  is  outstanding,  rather  it  is  the  concept  that  is  the  qualifier-­‐-­‐  some  of  these  works  

and  artists  who  have  worked  with  clothing  follow:    

 

Andrea  Zittel,  “Smock  Shop”,    

Artist,  Andrea  Zittel  enlisted  underemployed  artists  to  create  smocks  using  a  basic  

instruction  allowing  each  the  freedom  to  create  variations  of  their  own,  in  direct  

contradiction  to  the  usual  production  line  demand  and  reward  for  sameness.      

 

Projects  and  works:  

http://www.zittel.org/works  

“A-Z Uniforms are personal “uniforms” that are made and worn for an entire season. The second decade of this project began in 1994, and includes AZ Fiber Form Uniforms, AZ Personal Panels, Smocks and AZ Single Strand Uniforms. These garments, while both attractive and functional, question our associations of freedom or personal liberation with the market demand for constant variety. The Uniform project proposes that liberation may in fact, also be possible through the creation of a set of personal restrictions or limitations.”  

“Happiness”1  

http://blog.art21.org/2007/09/06/liberation-­‐through-­‐limitation%E2%80%94andrea-­‐

zittel%E2%80%99s-­‐smockshop/#.Up0P42RDvRc  

2

                                                                                                               1 Having spent years gaining international recognition and developing a variety of concepts for living, from 2 “Liberation through Limitation” – Andrea Zittel’s Smockshop by Kelly Shindler | Sep 6, 2007

  4  

Judi  Wertheim,  the  Argentine  performance  artist  designed  a  cross  trainer  for  the  

biennial  Insight  05.  Her  project  “Brinco”  is  slang  for  “jumping”  the  border  between  

Tijuana  and  San  Diego,  which  in  itself  is  a  dangerous  act  often  ending  in  death  for  the  

jumpers.  The  shoe  is  emblazoned  with  an  eagle  at  the  toe  to  remind  the  journeyers  of  

the  freedom  they  are  walking  towards.  The  inner  soles  show  the  two  best  routes  for  

getting  across  the  desert,  and  are  supplied  with  painkillers,  flashlight  and  a  number  to  a    

“safe  house”  once  across.    

 

 

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                           

  5  

 

 

  6  

 

 

 

  7  

Christian  Boltanski  installed  “No  Man’s  Land”  in  the  cavernous  New  York  Armory,  an  

almost  inconceivably  massive  heap  of  clothing  that  hard  to  view  without  immediately  

recalling  death  camps  and  the  Holocaust.    The  artist  references  Dante’s  inferno,  a  

haunting  allegory  to  the  shed  skins,  and  the  aura  they  collectively  produce.    

 

   

 

  8  

 

 Yinka  Shonibare  MBE,  the  artist,  creates  wordless  yet  powerful  statements  with  the  use  

of  bodies,  often  missing  heads,  and  objects  with  the  patterns  of  (notably)  Indonesian  

batik.  A  fabric  that  immediately  draws  to  mind  the  colonial  presence  of  the  Dutch  in  

Indonesia  and  the  repercussions  of  colonialism/imperialism  whose  subtle  and  not  so  

subtle  undercurrents  and  legacy  continue  to  pulse  through  emotional,  intellectual,  and  

social  cultural  capital  throughout  the  globe.  

 

 

  9  

 

   

 

 

  10  

 The  American  artist  Nick  Cave,  created  “Hustle  Coat”,  a  facsimile  in  clothing,  of  a  

contemporary  hustler,  a  term  from  the  Depression  era,  when  men  set  up  shop  wherever  

they  could-­‐dealing  far  more  than  knives,  drugs  or  diamonds—(in  a  contemporary  

meaning  think  Wall  Street,  blood  diamonds,  etc.  1%  hidden  under  the  ubiquitous  

raincoat  of  everyday)      

   

  11  

The  emerging  artist  Ranier  Grundl,  silkscreened  patterns  on  Hermes  scarves  (2013),  his  

critique  revealing  the  ignorance  Hermes  demonstrated  when  they  appropriated  Aztec  

imagery  confusing  (warring)  Aztec  tribes  and  chiefs—  as  a  happy  family.  

 

   

 

And  then  there  are  Fashion  designers  who  have  freely  experimented  with  clothing  in  a  

conceptual  realm  like  Hussain  Chaylan3,  the  Cypriot  designer  whose  collection  Living  

Room-­‐After  Words4  Autumn/Winter  2000  Womenswear  Collection,  sponsored  by  ITKIB    

https://vimeo.com/7686397  

and  Marks  &  Spencer-­‐  these  clothes  could  be  worn  as  items  of  clothing,  but  transform  

into  suitcases,  packed  up  within  seconds  for  a  rapid  and  traceless  exodus,  chilling  as  the                                                                                                                  3  http://chalayan.com/afterwords/  4  Afterwords  (2000)  was  inspired  by  the  horror  of  having  to  leave  your  home  at  the  time  of  war.Initially  Chalayan  took  the  inspiration  from  how  Turkish  Cypriots  (including  members  of  Chalayan’s  family)  were  subjected  to  ethnic  cleansing  in  Cyprus  prior  to  1974  (as  there  were  attempts  to  annex  Cyprus  to  Greece).  After  talks  with  his  family  Chalayan  explored  the  idea  of  how  we  may  want  to  hide  our  possessions  or  how  we  may  want  to  carry  them  with  us  on  departure  in  such  an  ordeal.In  this  light  a  living  room  was  created  where  clothes  were  disguised  as  chair  covers,  suitcases  as  chairs  and  each  object  in  the  room  fitted  into  a  special  pocket  which  was  specifically  designed  to  contain  them.  

 

  12  

stinging  recall  and  grief  from  recent  diasporas  and  genocides  in  Sarajevo,  Armenia,  

Tibet,  among  many  war  torn  areas  remain  ever  present.  

http://chalayan.com/afterwords/#sthash.xWBVouFI.dpuf  

Other  art  projects  can  be  viewed:  http://chalayan.com/art-­‐projects/  

 

 

  13  

   

 In  1997,  fashion  designer  Martin  Margiela  in  collaboration  with  a  micro  biologist  dipped  

18  outfits  in  different  mold,  bacteria,  and  yeast  cultures;  for  the  installation  "Exposing  

Meaning  in  Fashion  Through  Presentation"  he  displayed  mannequins  with  clothing  

rotting  away.  As  the  days  worn  on  the  moulds  and  bacteria’s  were  literally  decomposing  

the  clothing…  These  are  only  a  few  of  the  recent  crossovers  where  designers  and  artists  

have  worked  with  clothing  to  reach  into  domains  not  natural  to  its  functionality,  where  

fashion  has  become  an  art  medium-­‐very  different  from  an  18c  ‘historic’  referencing  

when  the  decorative  arts  were  considered  within  the  fine  arts.    

 

 

 

 

Hussein Chalayan: Collection: Dazed & Confused

  14  

 Another  iteration  is  the  proliferation  of  media  in  fashion,  the  fashion  film,  and  streaming  

media  from  the  catwalk-­‐-­‐  which  has  become  an  event  in  itself,  since  more  often  then  

not  what  is  featured  on  the  runway,  is  rarely  what  is,  or  can  be  available  in  the  

showrooms  or  sold  as  clothing.  In  fact  the  runway  has  come  to  be  high  spectacle  where  

  15  

performance  is  prized.  Viktor  and  Rolf,  the  design  team,  exemplified  this,  known  for  

their  conceptual  fashion  shows,  with  fragile  materials  and  conceptual  ideas  they  waited  

years  before  launching  any  actual  clothing  collections—and  recently  decided  to  close—

another  magnificent  act  of  showmanship  from  this  duo  or  a  move  towards  embracing  

the  art  of  performance  (in  fashion)  which  they  have  singularly  become  known  for.    

With  their  Russian  Doll  collection,  1999,  they  collectively  dress  one  model  in  all  the  

clothes  from  the  collection.  https://youtu.be/MZXR-­‐HkIOrU  

 

 

 

  16  

 

 

 

  17  

 

And  then  there  is  the  practice,  which  some  designers  would  agree  places,  cutting  or  

patternmaking  as  the  embodiment  of  philosophy  itself.  Not  a  mere  superficial  line  but  

rather  a  clear  and  deep  cut  defining  thought  as  effectively  as  text.    

 

  18  

Geoffrey  Beene  Couture  

 Yohji  Yaamoto  

 

A.F. Vandevorst FROM MUSEUM DE LA MODE ANTWERP: PATTERNS5 24 April 2003 – 10 August 2003

                                                                                                               5 “Patterns can be described as the technical drawings behind a garment. While they are of interest to museum curators as research materials, they are rarely shown in the context of an exhibition. MoMu’s ‘Patterns’ inverted this relationship, making the technical drawing the point of focus, ancillary to the finished garment. Within each pattern is a suggestion not only of a possible piece of clothing, but also of the body that will inhabit it, and, by extension, the ideal body shape of that era. The exhibition included works by Haider Ackermann, A.F. Vandevorst, Hussein Chalayan and Walter Van Beirendonck. Photo © Koen De Waal. http://www.fashioninantwerp.be/momu  

 

  19  

 

For  those  familiar  with  fashion  one  wonders  how  far  the  work  of  designers  like  Yohji  

Yamamoto  and  Rei  Kawakubo,  Comme  Des  Garcon  who  launched  their  collections  in  the  

mid  80’s  would  have  gone  had  the  ground  not  already  been  vitalized  by  this  confluence  

of  energies.  If  not  before  them,  certainly  with  their  work,  something  new  was  clearly  at  

hand.    

 

Fashion  is  the  physical  evidence  of  the  way  we  live  in  the  present  now.  It  has  until  

recently  been  mute,  unmoving,  captured  in  frozen  gestures,  and  under  house  arrest  in  

the  archives  of  museums,  except  for  a  seasonal  performance  on  the  catwalk.  Historically  

it’s  been  governed  by  a  strict  hierarchy  of  signs  with  their  precise  index,  the  symbols  

that  stand  in  for  wealth  and  capital  in  all  its  forms,  Fashion  is  a  narrative  that  tells  a  

story  that  only  fashion  can  tell.  Out  of  this  chameleon-­‐like,  ambiguous  and  visceral  

language  comes  an  extremely  precise  articulation  of  our  desires,  how  we  live  and  the  

choices  we  make,  visible  in  our  second  skin.    

 

This  is  an  exciting  time  when  novel  ways  of  telling  are  being  called  for.  In  contemporary  

fashion,  formalist  views  of  chronological  and  singular  narratives  are  being  outpaced  by  

the  entry  of  a  plethora  of  new  values,  and  an  intense  diversity  of  cultural  

understandings.  The  position  that  fashion  occupies  in  visual  culture  is  a  positive  factor  in  

implementing  this  shift  from  representing  a  foretold  history  to  presenting  new  open  

narratives.    

 

It  is  just  coincidence  that  these  new  happenings  in  fashion  medium  occur  at  the  same  

time  as  the  proliferation  and  heightened  interest  in  performance  art  and  the  prizing  of  

the  lived  moment  are  defining  characteristics  in  contemporary  art  ?  

 

Nicholas  Bourriaud  in  “The  Radicant”  states:  

“And  yet  the  immigrant,  the  exile,  the  tourist  and  the  urban  wanderer  are  the  dominant  

figures  of  contemporary  culture,  To  remain  within  this  vocabulary  of  the  vegetable  

  20  

realm,  one  might  say  that  the  individual  of  these  early  years  of  the    

21st  c  resembles  those  plants  that  do  not  depend  on  a  single  root  for  their  growth  but  

advance  in  all  directions  on  whatever  surfaces  present  themselves  by  attaching  multiple  

hooks  to  them,  as  ivy  does.  Ivy  belongs  to  the  botanical  family  of  the  radicants,  which  

develop  their  roots  as  they  advance,  unlike  the  radicals  whose  development  is  

determined  by  their  being  anchored  in  a  particular  soil.    

 

And  later—  

 

Contemporary  art  provides  new  models  for  this  individual  who  is  constantly  putting  

down  new  roots,  for  it  constitutes  a  laboratory  of  identities.  Thus  today’s  artists  do  not  

so  much  as  express  the  tradition  from  which  they  come  as  the  path  they  take  between  

that  tradition  and  the  various  contexts  they  traverse,  and  they  do  this  by  performing  

acts  of  translation.  Where  modernism  proceeded  by  subtraction  in  the  effort  to  unearth  

the  root,  or  principle,  contemporary  artists  proceed  by  selection,  additions,  and  then  

acts  of  multiplication.  They  do  not  seek  order  to  multiply  one  identity  by  another.    

 

The  radicant  implies  a  nomadic  bias,  whose  fundamental  characteristic  would  be  the  

tendency  to  inhabit  preexisting  structures,  a  willingness  to  be  the  tenant  of  existing  

forms,  even  if  that  means  modifying  them  more  or  less  extensively.  END  QUOTE  

 

This  sounds  very  much  the  same.  The  areas  blur  into  a  new  one.    

 

The  great  proliferation  of  hybrid  identities  coming  out  of  transplanted  nationalities,  

grafted  cultures  and  trends,  and  impossible  dreams  has  created  even  in  the  domain  of  

fashion  itself,  something  novel.  It  is  impossible  to  speak  of  purity,  either  in  aesthetic  

terms  or  in  fact  with  the  global  flow,  intense  mobility  and  speed  that  mark  

contemporary  life.    

 

  21  

The  issue  we  hope  to  unpack  is  how  these  new  movements  with  fashion  and  art  are  

happening  pervasively  with  the  kind  of  diversity  that  suggests  something  fresh  and  

important  is  at  work.  It  is  our  intention  that  you  will  think  along  with  us  and  consider  the  

ideas  being  presented  without  holding  too  tightly  to  already  closed  meanings  but  will  

instead  take  a  what/if  or  curious  listen.    Welcome.    

 

Copyright  Kathryn  Simon  2015  and  2010,  cite,  quote  and  use  freely  attributing  credit  to  the  

author.