Fruitmilk ladies on branding, Brancusi, and their new show PAR
Before Pauline Shaw and Kelynn Smith were Fruitmilk, they were escaping a crazy Los Angeles house party together just as things were winding up, “like two grandmas” stealing away into the cool night. They cackle remembering how they happened to have James Franco’s phone number and decided to give him a call, but after that plan fell through, they got to talking about…branding strategies and a framework for fusing art and fashion. That conversation is why they’re here today, painting blobs affixed to an installation of white pillars, in space15twenty‘s urbanoutfitters gallery space.
It’s the ideal meeting place of their disparate yet symbiotic expertise—Pauline, a world-traveling RISD grad sculptor is right at home covered in paint while Kelynn, the fashion and marketing wiz from Chicago via Kentucky, fits comfortably among the merchandise display. Any sense of the unlikelihood of their partnership falls away when they begin to speak, as if from a jointly shared thought bubble made of shredded fabric and glaze that they translate for each other into English. They’re somewhere between laser-focused and laissez-faire as they cover the last exposed patches of blobs in milky white paint. “The one language we speak fluently together is our aesthetic” Kelynn explains between brushstrokes.
From one minute to the next, they’re bantering about their mutual obsession for Romanian turn-of-the-century artist Constantin Brancusi, then getting serious about a friend’s fetish-themed Instagram. “Did you know being choked by hair braids is a real fetish?”
Their graphic designer/BFF Symrin Chawla walks over wearing an apron-dress from the rack of clothes debuting in their new show PAR—both Fruitmilk curations and Pauline and Kelynn’s own brand SP-KS. “Do I have this on right?” she asks. It sparks a philosophical debate about the boundary between an apron and a dress. Fruitmilk is about walking the fine line between functionality and beautiful uselessness. “We want to make things that encourage a thought process.” They show me a long cylindrical Manal Kara ceramic mug with a gigantic orange handle that is part of the show. “You can take exactly one shot out of it.”
Fruitmilk emerged in response to a sense of frustration with the limitations of their respective industries. Kelynn didn’t want to make shirts, she wanted to make “pieces,” and Pauline was disheartened by the rigidity of gallery openings. Fruitmilk is less an escape than an experiment in how art and product can fuse into one, how a brand can be imbued with a sense of movement and play, and how marketing can be world-making.
When asked about a specific marketing approach, Pauline responds in true millenial spirit: “Everyone is always marketing themselves, even people who don’t think they are. I realized the reason I wanted to be an artist when I was younger was because I wanted to be the background person who makes things that impact people but I don’t get held accountable. When you get older and actually experience it, you realize you do have to be very accountable, and everything is a calculated move. How you’re presenting yourself, what you’re presenting is adding to this idea of you that people buy into.”
As simultaneous creators and curators, they have the opportunity to “share ideas that aren’t part of our personal brand” says Pauline. For this show, they’re thrilled to be displaying the likes of Mexican designer robertosanchezfashionblogger‘s frayed minimalist constructions alongside their own clothing designs, and Mondo Mondo’s jewelry alongside their swirling clay Rubik’s Cube. Though not all the pieces in the show are part of their individual visions, they’re part of a collectively told story and an experience that extends beyond their partnership into a global enterprise. Kelynn chimes in, “There’s an idea of Pauline that exists in the art world and an idea of Kelynn that exists in the fashion world. We thought if we’re going to come together and do this, it’s not going to a be project that says “Hi we’re Kelynn and Pauline and we’re two cute girls that have these other things and do Fruitmilk. This is Fruitmilk, and if you want to learn about us, we’re part of it, but we’re making something that is both of us.”
Par is a window into their aesthetic universe, but unlike most gallery shows, taking a piece home won’t break the bank. “A lot of it is based on our symbiotic relationship and how that works on the viewer or buyer, and what it means when you’re in a space and allowed to purchase something but maybe it’s also art. We want people to question why is this for sale and do I want it and what went into the making of it and if it’s art or fashion. Our stuff doesn’t need to only exist in this high world, we’re down for everyone to take a piece of it. This show is one person that exists in this one moment in the Fruitmilk world.”
Par opens June 5th from 7-10 PM at Space 15 Twenty, 1520 N. Cahuenga Blvd, LA 90028.
