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 | Newsletter | 4 April 2012 |
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| CURRENT FASHION FETISH | |
| The second installment of our Fashion Fetish season - examining a female viewpoint on the relationship between clothes and fetishism - launched on Monday 2 April 2012. This week's offering twists away from fashion film, embracing instead a new form of potential artistic output, Tumblr. Rei Nadal has offered a unique take on the series' theme by curating the official SHOWstudio Tumblr with new imagery each day this week. Her work juxtaposes found visuals with phrases and self-portraits in a unique, and often provocative, dialogue. Her output has been aided by SHOWstudio, who are delivering a new package of fashion objects, cosmetics and accessories to her home each day, free for her to use if, and in any way, she chooses. The items remain in her possession for twenty-four hours only (09:00 CET - 09.00 CET) encouraging Nadal to fully explore the creative potentialities of these precious, temporary belongings. Nadal has also been interacting with the viewing audience via the 'Ask' feature on Tumblr - speak to her yourself or visit the SHOWstudio Tumblr page for the rest of this week to see the concept unfold. Fashion Fetish - which will run alongside the 2012 SHOWstudio Shop exhibition Selling Sex - is also debuting a new essay series to correspond with the weekly Fashion Fetish releases. The written pieces will explore the imagery and messages behind each new creative offering, questioning what is meant by fetish. Rather than simply taking on items like red-lips, corsets, stilettos, stockings or whips as ‘fetish’, no questions asked, these essays will address the contexts of these fetishes, explaining and evaluating why these items are seen as desirous or sexual. Essays will be released for the duration of the Selling Sex exhibition, 22 March - 1 June 2012. [more] | |
| CURRENT REI, I DON'T EXIST | |
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 This project details the aids and inspirations that have helped facilitate Rei Nadal's curation of SHOWstudio Tumblr. In her own unique interpretation of Fashion Fetish Nadal has turned our Tumblr into her own personal reference book, posting found imagery, self-portraits and textual musings. She is assisted in her work by stylist Ellie Grace Cumming who has carefully selected high fashion objects, cosmetics and accessories to be sent in daily packages to Nadal's home - free for her to use as and how she likes. Each daily selection is available for twenty-four hours only (09:00 CET - 09:00 CET). The first two days saw outfits from Lanvin, Alexander McQueen and Haider Ackermann delivered with a miscellany of items from silver nails, to leather harnesses, to a Maria Callas CD. Rei, I Don't Exist documents all the pieces delivered to Nadal, alongside pertinent information to highlight the decision behind their selection. [more] | |
| CURRENT #SCREENTESTS FEATURING ROCKY A$AP | |
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 A brand new film made its debut this week. #ScreenTests - made by filmmaker Jake Davis and art director Matthew Williams in collaboration with New York based electric rapper A$AP Rocky (a.k.a Rakim Mayers) - was inspired by Andy Warhol's iconic Screen Tests. Styled by Simonez Wolf, the piece draws particularly from Warhol's short of Lou Reed drinking Coca-Cola - offering a reworking of Factory style aesthetics and cinematography for the current age. The deliberately under-whelming snapshot of celebrity is an amusing and relevant message for our fame-obsessed, ever-consuming culture. Davis' comments, 'I've always been interested in what makes an icon. Superstars can do pretty much anything in front of the camera and we stay intrigued.' [more] | |
| CURRENT FASHION MIX | |
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 Two very diverse playlists, matched by two very diverse contributors, make up the latest offerings in our Fashion Mix series. On Monday, perfectly timed with her Fashion Fetish Tumblr curation, Rei Nadal put forward her favourite tracks. Unsurprisingly given the range of provocative, and sometimes obscure, imagery she has posted to the Tumblr, Nadal offers up some unique new musical sounds from up-and-coming artists such as rave-favourite oOoOO. Yet, just as she balances the Tumblr content with images of the great fashion stalwarts, Nadal intersperses her mix with offerings from the musical giants, hence the appearance of Radiohead's haunting How To Disappear Completely. On Friday our musical selection comes from knitwear maestros Sibling. The energetic mix is the perfect compliment to their bright natty yarns, full of infectious beats from the likes of Althea & Donna, Third World, and, of course, Madonna. [more] | |
| FROM THE SHOP PEPSI & COCKY #3, #7 AND #9, 2008 | |
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 London born Sarah Lucas is most prominently known for being one of the Young British Artists. Created for George Michael and Kenny Goss, Lucas paid homage to her patron by naming her piece Pepsi & Cocky after one of Michael's background singers. Pepsi & Cocky, consisting of nylon tights stuffed with fluff and fashioned into ambiguous biomorphic forms, leans towards primitivism and abstraction. Seeped with sexuality, the piece is linked to the gender-orientated works that defined Lucas's practice in the early nineties and after, in which assemblages of found objects became stand-ins for female or male bodies. The tactile and ephemeral materials used in the sculpture also reflect Lucas's use of the 'readymade' - from furniture to tabloid newspapers and cigarettes. Pepsi & Cocky approximates sexual female form in its fragile, available, and literal state through its disembodied and gesturing limbs, and is one of Lucas's signature bunny pieces. [more] | |
| FROM THE ARCHIVE DRESS ME UP, DRESS ME DOWN | |
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 Targetting similar themes to current projects Fashion Fetish and Selling Sex comes Dress Me Up, Dress Me Down, a project focused on exploring the idea of control in fashion image-making. From the 2005 archive, the project offered SHOWstudio viewers the one-off chance to dress model Liberty Ross in a live interactive photoshoot. Inspired by live pornographic video chats widely available on the web Ross became the focus of a series of fashion film interactives and imagery, the creation of which was determined by the online audience and Ross herself. Watch the initial formation of the project concept, with a candid video of Nick Knight's brief for Ross, or peruse the final imagery from Knight's editorials for Vogue and Pop magazine. Q&As with Ross and Knight, as well as mood boards, interactives, and essays by Peter Saville, Richard Kern and Ann-Sofie Back amongst others, give a further insight into the concepts, thought-processes and questions behind the project. [more] | |
| LATEST ENTRIES BLOG | |
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Neal Bryant: SHOWstudio Tech Updates - Customisable 3D Objects  Here at SHOWstudio we are extremely interested in 3D scanning and printing. One of most appealing potentials of 3D printing is the ability to recreate, personalize and customise products to the users on specifications. [more] | |
'Seven Veils' perfume by Byredo  As part of our Fashion Fetish-themed Tumblr curation by Rei Nadal, we will despatch a box (or two) each day filled with fashion items, cosmetics and curios. Today, amongst finery from Lanvin and Erickson Beamon baubles, she received the 'Seven Veils' fragrance by Byredo. [more] | |
Rei Nadal's Fashion Fetish Tumblr curation - Day Three  The third day of artist Rei Nadal's Fashion Fetish Tumblr curation kicks off with another high fashion care package delivered right to her Barcelona door. [more] | |
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