"I was thinking about a woman as an object of desire. We go to such lengths to adorn ourselves that we almost become our clothes or are taken over by them. This is a collection about excess - an exploration of ideals of beauty at their most extreme.” Sarah Burton (1)
Clothes are a woman’s second skin. Phenomenal is the only way one can look and probably feel in this skin as presented in Alexander McQueen’s latest collection. The 2012 Spring/Summer Collection is “all about the Gaia the wonder of nature, the sea” as Sarah Burton says. The aquatic themed fashion show is a parade of mysteriously laced faces, corseted woman silhouettes, extravagant craftsmanship of cutting, beading and adorning with mother of pearls, seashells and bones.
The fantasia creatively directed by Sarah Burton is her 3rd collection since her boss and the founder of the company, Alexander McQueen passed away in 2010. Arguably, Sarah Burton has created excessive skins that keep secrets from another world in this collection. Mythological inspirations derived from magnificence of the underworld, are portrayed in the artisan and the technical excellence of the pieces.
The mind-blowing craftsmanship is a beauty for the romantic mind. Highly sophisticated narrative pieces are echoed in the radiance of the calming presentation that almost sings to the ear where the heavy feel of lightness provokes the imagination.
British photographer Tim Walker’s pictures have appeared on pages of Vogue for the last decade. His pre-college work experience at the Conde-Nast library in London, where he worked on the Cecil Beaton archive became the reason of his fascination with photography. His truly inspiring work that takes its ingredients from fashion, the costumes, the make up, the set design, the background have become one-of-a-kind fantasy settings.
Following his graduation in 1994, he moved to New York City where he worked with Richard Avedon. Ever since he shot his very first fashion narrative for Vogue at the age of 25, he has continued to photograph for the American, British and Italian editions.
Tim walker sees himself as a “daydreamer” who creates fantasies, spaces unaffected by time. The extravagant staging and sense of romanticism are the elements that characterize the magical theatricality of his pictures.
The escapism offered through Walker’s lens of nostalgia is the surprising consequence of his elaborated imagery. His use of nostalgia in his photographs connects the viewer to the present world in a bizarre way.
The success of his story telling is captured in the feel of history in his fictive creations. His imperfect spaces almost offer a room the viewers’ imagination of what could have happened before and the ambiguity of the past becomes a fragile question to answer.
The untidy, unclean, catastrophic splendor of his pictures gives a hint to the viewer that he can look for his own non-existent nostalgia, a reminiscent from his inspiring childhood. Yet the beauty of his pictures lies in the only reality of being undiscoverable by others. Observing Tim Walker’s pictures feels like taking a faraway stare to the unreal world, where Walker’s imagination breathes in the glitter of his tales.
His geographically “location-less” spaces are weirdly too beautiful and perhaps too romantic to be part of. One enjoys gazing through his photographs that portray a sense of hope that the world on the other side, the reality can be more beautiful than what is illustrated. It is the spirit of his flamboyant lands lost in time that triggers an unknown feeling of something in people making him only the unique photographer of our real-time.
“IRIS A Journey Through the World of Cinema” is the latest production by Montreal based Cirque du Soleil. IRIS a show about the evolution of the art of cinema, directed and chareographed by Philippe Decouflé is designed for the Kodak Theatre in Hollywood. The name refers to the iris of the human eye as well as camera diaphragms. Just like the nature of its name, IRIS enables a colorful vision to the history of moviemaking.
There might not be a better way to escape time than watching the dancers in the most colorful, extravagant costumes perform to the music composed by Danny Elfman. The costuming in IRIS is authentic creation dramatized with detail. Whether it is the performer in black and white stripes with a spinning tutu that functions as a vintage French animation device or the 19th century invention the hybride camera-head performer, the dancers in costumes are almost mistaken for the beautifully constructed props.
Iris is a celebration of cinematic perception, a detailed design of fantasy offered through the lens of the camera. It is a circus of hypnotizing acrobacy, eccentric props, incredibly creative costumes, beautiful live music and thrilling play of shadows and light. Every single second of the production is meticulously narrated by creative minds to introduce a wonderland where surreal theatricality of the space is a magical remedy for everyday life. IRIS is a sensational, mesmerizing visual pleasure, an exceptional work of art.
Officially premiered in August 25, 2011, the show will take place 11 months of the year giving a break for a month for the Academy Awards. The $120,000,000 production is scheduled to run for 10 years.
Burton’s imagination is on exhibition at Los Angeles County of Museum between May 29 & October 31, 2011. The exhibition takes the viewer to the world of Burton through his drawings, early sketches, maquettes, storyboards, paintings, photographs, costumes and concept artworks. Burton’s inspirational works take the viewer to a space where the definition of adulthood and the distinction of childhood are in blur.
Born in 1958 in Burbank, Tim Burton graduated from California Institute of Arts and worked as an animator in Walt Disney Studios. His interpretation of fairy tales in a gothic yet humorous way has changed the perspective of Hollywood genre filmmaking.
The exhibition that brings together over 700 works of art is a must see. Stepping into this imaginary world, one will feel splashed by Burton’s talent and leave inspired. Yet it will be hard to step away from his cinematic perception that has no boundaries.
Robert Irwin’s Central Garden at the Getty Center is an artwork where the medium is plants. The 134,000 square foot (12,400m2) garden’s planning started in 1992. The construction started in spring 1996 and the garden was completed in December 1997.
Irwin’s constantly changing artwork that is designed so precisely is “never twice the same.”(1) Gardeners work year round to maintain this organic sculpture that consists of more than 500 varieties of plant material. The visitors start their journey of an extraordinary garden experience through tree-lined walkway. The walkway becomes a zigzagged path where the green grass meets the steel walls of the walking path. Water is a major part of the garden. Zigzagged path cuts through a stream that flows on cobbled stones leading the visitors to the surprise that is waiting for them. It is a pool, azalea pool in which a circular maze floats.
Irwin’s creation is a theatrical setting, a wondering reality where light, colors, sounds and smells do their show in harmony. It is a written screenplay, a spatial pleasure where the visitor loses his/her reality.
