#eugeniedalland

[riotofperfume]

photo, Drew Vickers

styling, Eugenie Dalland

Riot of Perfume, Issue 10

[eugeniedalland]

BEYOND THE PAGE: ROBIN GIVHAN IN PROFILE

https://www.culturedmag.com/robin-givhan-reset-the-boundaries-of-fashion-writing-no-shes-taking-an-even-larger-role-in-the-industrys-transformation/

Givhan’s analysis of the fashion choices of political figures brings into sharp focus the similarities in logic between the industries, namely that reality can very easily be warped and manipulated by perception. Politicians and fashion executives alike make use of the fact that the public is often not able to differentiate between fact and appearance, which is something that the Trump administration—as well as most major luxury fashion brands—have exploited to disastrous effect. We buy into brands, for instance, based on what the brand represents to us, not for the quality, beauty or functionality of the physical product. “Appearance doesn’t change fact,” Givhan explained in a 2018 interview, “but it certainly can alter the way in which we perceive the fact; sometimes, it alters whether or not we believe in it.”

[eugeniedalland]

Exhibition Review: Disaster / End of Days

Galerie Thaddaeus Ropac Pantin

The impulse for destruction is as intrinsic to human nature as is its antithesis, creation, and many of the most elevated artistic creations our culture has produced pertain to that negative impulse. Eugene Delacroix’s Death of Sardanapalus, an enormous, opulent painting stationed at the Louvre, showcases various aspects of Romanticism including rich and vivid imagery and classical references, but what is most gripping about the image is its sheer violence. When faced with imminent military defeat, Sardanapolus, the last king of Assyria, orders all of his prize possessions destroyed and killed. The Greek story also tells of Sardanapolus’ own suicide, but the viewer of Delacroix’s painting witnesses the destruction before this event; Sardanapolus reclines on a luxurious divan watching all his concubines, horses, and other possessions get slaughtered and ruined. The artistic rendering of disaster - in addition to the viewing of it - are both part of the same preoccupation we seem to have with this darker side of the human psyche.

Roughly two hundred years after Delacroix’s painting, our preoccupation with and proclivity for destruction and violence are clearly still intact, arguably on a greater scale than in Delacroix’s time (or even Sardanapolus’). While blockbuster films make up a huge percentage of the “artistic” reproduction of destruction and violence today, more subtle and provocative interpretations of destruction are found in the work of many contemporary artists. Calamity, terrorism, violence, and torture are all incorporated into works that touch on contemporary as well as classical discourses. One example is the banishment of Adam and Eve from Eden, which provides the focus of American artist Liza Lou’s The Damned (2004), two sculptures composed of glittering gold beads. The figures are devastated and shamed upon the dawn of their self-consciousness, their faces contorted and frozen into expressions of horror. A recent work of artist Barry X Ball entitled Purity also bears witness to a kind of loss of virtue, though here it is expressed in the physical material of the work. Much of Ball’s work is inspired by classical Venetian busts (many of which are housed in the Ca' Rezzonico museum in Venice) that he then replicates using three-dimensional scanning as well as painstakingly detailed hand carving techniques. Purity is a direct reference to Antonio Corradini’s The Veiled Lady/Purity (c. 1720-1725), a beautifully crafted bust of a veiled woman – ostensibly purity incarnate. Ball’s version is equally striking, though it is far more sinister: the marble has been corroded all over the statue, giving the figure an almost corpse-like appearance. The naturally-occurring red and rust-colored stripes of the Mexican Onyx contribute to this image of a decayed and crumbling ideal of purity. When we encounter works that are less abstract and based more directly on specific events, controversy is an inevitable addition to the interpretation of the artwork. These pieces also bring us back to the original question of how and why we make art that represents disaster, violence and atrocity. When the 20th century sociologist Theodore Adorno postured that “to write poetry after Auschwitz is barbaric,” he was primarily referring to what German culture would become after WWII, but his statement speaks to the more general question of the representation of disaster in art. Marc Quinn’s shocking sculpture Mirage (2009) depicts a life-size bronze figure that depicted the infamous image of the Abu Ghraib prisoner that circulated in 2004. The resulting sculpture - a figure that appears Christ-like, standing atop an upended box with his arms held out -presents a complex, powerful, though ultimately perplexing statement. Quinn was partially inspired by Francisco Goya’s Disasters of War, a series of prints that illustrated the atrocities caused by the political strife of early 19th century Spain. While Goya did not make his intentions for the series known (nor were they actually circulated until after his death), art historians today regard them as visual outcries against the violence of the times. While it is sometimes impossible to ascertain an artist’s intention in his or her work, our interpretation of their artwork must certainly echo some of what Goya’s historians believe.

[eugeniedalland]

EILEEN FISHER AND THE NEW FEMININITY

https://www.culturedmag.com/eileen-fisher/

Journalists have often pointedly detailed the difficulty Eileen has with explaining her business approach, sometimes even characterizing it as evasive or flighty. Usually the logic of these profiles follows that of a “success-despite-the-odds” story, the “odds” more or less referring to her inability to draw clear lines around her business practices. This judgement misses a greater point: the price of a business that champions the collective over a single authority might inevitably entail an amorphous disposition, due to the degree of constant flux. It’s something we’re just not used to envisioning or discussing—yet.

[eugeniedalland]

NOTHING SACRED: “INTELLIGENCE FOR DUMMIES” IN REVIEW

https://lareviewofbooks.org/article/nothing-sacred-on-intelligence-for-dummies/

The essayist does not have it easy when it comes to gaining entrance to the literary canon, but O’Brien would seem to have an even greater trial than most because his seminal work was defined by its ephemerality. His extraordinary output existed mainly in the glossy pages of magazines: in the editorial columns as well as in the advertisements. He was a prolific copy writer and advertising director whose wit graced many a billboard and perfume bottle, and his ad campaigns were lauded and even occasionally denounced (most famously by the Justice Department in 1995 for a series of Calvin Klein commercials shot by Larry Clark). O’Brien managed to blur the lines between art and commerce in a way that legions of artists today attempt to do but rarely accomplish as successfully, or explosively, as he did.

[eugeniedalland]

COSMIC IDEALS AND SINGING PLANTS: A WEEKEND AT AZULIK

https://www.culturedmag.com/cosmic-ideals-and-singing-plants-a-weekend-at-azulik/

I recently ran into some old high school acquaintances of mine from upstate New York. Many years had passed since we’d seen each other and I was curious to hear what they’d been doing with their lives. “I started a cattle farm,” said one. “I’m a milk-maid,” replied the other. In recent years, a lot of my friends have joined the “return-to-nature” movement in similar fashions—which I concede is thoroughly applaudable in light of the environmental catastrophes that we face today. But sometimes I can’t help thinking about Marie Antoinette and her play-farm, Le Hameau de la Reine, in the Versailles gardens. There, she and her coterie would collect eggs from chicken coups which had been pre-cleaned by servants, and tend to sanitized lambs, indulging in what she believed to be the picturesque life of the peasant who lives close to nature.

[eugeniedalland]

MOZHDEH MATIN’S BEAUTIFUL ENGAGEMENT: A NEW MODEL FOR FASHION DESIGN

https://www.culturedmag.com/mozhdeh-matins-beautiful-engagement-a-new-model-for-fashion-design/

Her collections are the result of a joint decision-making process between designer and manufacturer, one in which the latter maintains a large degree of creative license. This in-the-flesh exchange creates a social structure that stands in stark contrast to the majority of designer-manufacturer relationships today, which tend to be characterized by their social, symbolic and physical distance. It’s interesting to consider that a closer physical proximity between a designer and the person who is constructing her product might be an important factor in the reprioritization of social concerns over economic ones.

[eugeniedalland]

The Evolving Face of Modernity: An Interview with Vejas Kruszewski

https://www.culturedmag.com/vejas/

“Which designers do you most admire?”

It’s a trite question, I admit—one that I often try to rephrase or avoid during interviews (responses are often pat or conventional). But right now, I’m genuinely interested. I’m on the phone with Canadian fashion designer Vejas Kruszewski, who founded his namesake label, Vejas, in 2014, at the age of 17. He’s an unusual designer and I feel sure his response will be intriguing. “I think the life story of [1930s couturier] Madame Grès is really interesting. Her dresses were inspired by ancient Greek statues, but they were so futuristic. Those streams of influence are fascinating. Actually, she also convinced [Cristóbal] Balenciaga to start his own line,” he tells me. “And I’m pretty sure the costume designer for the original Star Wars was looking at her work. I love those hypothetical links and the idea of a lineage of great people influencing great people.”

Kruszewski’s ability to identify the subtle, cobweb-like connections that span decades, visual mediums and a diverse cast of designers makes something light up in my mind. In a creative landscape and market that are besotted with pastiche (and horse-whipped by big business), it’s hard to remember what the sensation of seeing something new and unfamiliar feels like. We’re obsessed with novelty, but only if we can recognize it. As I listen to him talk about the way he engages with influences, I realize that his perspective is quite unique. An innate and unbridled sense of design often engenders this kind of vision. It’s also a requisite for making work that truly feels modern.