AZHAR
ARCHITECTURE
Integrated
Sustainable
Solutions
RIBA Chartered Practice
AzharArchitecture
writing: 09.03 ADA
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AZHAR
ARCHITECTURE
writing: 09.03 ADA
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Hussein Chalayan - From fashion and back Hussein Chalayans importance has now been recognized to be at the forefront of contemporary fashion design at the Design Museum in London. After all he has been twice named “British Designer of the Year” and has created an elegant reputation for his innovative use of materials, meticulous pattern cutting and progressive and incorporating new technology, as well as eccentric pieces which border on installation art. He has even made some short films! This exhibition is the first comprehensive presentation of Hussein Chalayan’s work in the UK. Spanning fifteen years of experimental projects, the exhibition explores Hussein Chalayan's creative approach, his inspirations and the many themes which influence his work such as cultural identity, displacement and migration. Overall he has a sense of material in an inventive and humorous way, although the references to the orient are there, (his heritage is eastern Mediterranean, Turkish-Cypriot, and educated in North London) they are not overplayed or made indulgently explicit, arguably more subliminal than obvious, and not clichéd (no its not East meets West, once again!). Hussein Chalayan states that his creative work “borrows from architecture, design, philosophy, anthropology, science and technology”. Eclectic mix, one could say, but actually anyone who is creative straddles different disciplines, has to look sideways not only for inspiration but also to place one-self in context. Chalyans references are not used as badges, but arise from him assimilating and processing, he doesn’t apply a layer of “cultural theory” to give it some kind of intellectual legitimisation. The impressive exhibition layout is a series of installations, which are discreet in there own way, allowing the pieces to speak, without trying to give it an overall brand, after all it is a retrospective. The exhibition has very memorable pieces in an installation format and include: § ‘Afterwords’ which explores the notion of ‘wearable, portable architecture’ in which chairs and tables literally transforms itself into garments, eccentric and bordering on the ridiculous, but managed to get Chalayan some vast media coverage. A dress becoming a table or vice versa would get noticed! § ‘Airborne’ bringing the latest LED technology to fashion design with a spectacular dress consisting of dazzling crystals and over 15,000 flickering LED lights. Interesting, and actually seems more at home in a film set. Fashion and film being so close is no accident in this exhibition. § ‘Readings’ a dress comprising of over 200 moving lasers presenting an extraordinary spectacle of light. The idea is absurd, the execution actually quite menacing! § ‘airmail clothes’ , dating from 1999, Chalayan sewed a papery material into a foldable “airmail letter” complete with red and blue striped borders and string, it is humorous, witty, and actually very elegant! He is said to present “fashion as a site of exploration and as expressions of concepts”, Hussein Chalayan challenges “preconceived notions of what clothing can mean, rather than as garments with only functionality in mind” (Quotes from the press release). In my mind the female body is occasionally subordinated into a complete wrapped object, de-sensitizing the body into an object, at the same time creating a beautiful textural form. I was struck by the mannequins that he uses, they are made from one model, which is not in anyway an idealized woman, nor an everyday woman, she is not a cast from a super model, neither in features nor in size. The presentation moves away from falling into being a stylized fashion exhibition, but engages with actually making a very good series of experiences for the viewer. This repetition unifies the clothes, and makes for a familiarization with one face. In addition Hussein Chalayan presents a series of video pieces, “directing art projects”, the short films titled with distinctly evocative titles such as “Temporal Meditations”, “Place to Passage” and “Anaesthetics”. In 2005, he represented Turkey at the 51st Venice Biennale with “Absent Presence”, a short film pieces featuring the talented and physically unusual actress Tilda Swinton (also a muse of the influential Derek Jarman – a former influential teacher at St Martins, who made the amazing film “Carravagio”). The piece “Place to Passage” is an imaginary haunting journey from London to Istanbul, presented on multiple screens which captures his label “future minimalism”, is beautifully choreographed, filmed and presented. It captures the reality of an homogenized travel , which starts and ends with the banality of an underground car-park. Even the androgyny of the protagonist highlights the fact that everything is at a constant which suggests that the place that you leave and the place that you arrive at are actually the same, a basement car-park. Hussein Chalayan was born in Nicosia (Lefkoşa in Turkish), Cyprus. At the age of 12, he came to England to study and later graduated from Central St Martin’s College of Art and Design, London in 1993. His graduate collection in 1993, titled "The Tangent Flows", contained clothes which he had buried in his back yard and dug up again. This got him noticed! The collection was seen by Joan Burstein of the reputable London retailer, Browns, whi consequently showed his work in full. In 1995, Chalayan beat 100 competitors to clinch a top London fashion design award. In the contest, organised by the company "Absolut", Chalayan, aged 25, he won the prize money (said to be a sum of £28,000) his remit was to develop creations for the British capital's Fashion Week in October 1995, which also won him critical acclaim. It is noteworthy that a “fashion prize” may be traced to changing a young creative persons fortunes, giving them seed money to focus on their work. Also in 1995 Chalayan worked with Icelandic the eccentric pop diva Björk. The jacket that Björk wears on the cover of her album Post was designed by Hussein Chalayan. The collaboration went further, Björk's Post music tour also featured several creations by Chalayan. Björk also subsequently modelled for Chalayan in October 1995 for London Fashion week. Chayalan work has been described as “future minimalism”. He has also been controversial, where he took “inspiration” from the traditional Muslim dress (naked models paraded down the catwalk with their heads draped in traditional scarves); other creations include long knitted dresses with built-in walking sticks, starkly pleated ‘concertina’ dresses etc.. This crossover between art, theatre, social commentary has got him great notice and press coverage. Although as a person he is said to be private, and not haunting “hip” clubs inhabited by rocket fuelled fahionistas. His “art” connections are proven by the fact that his work has been exhibited in a variety of premiere locations, including, the Victoria and Albert Museum, Institute of Contemporary Arts, Tate Modern in London, as well as the Louvre in Paris. Chalayan is definitely aligned with the art world, just as much as the fashion world. Exhibitions worldwide include Radical Fashion at the V&A, London (1997), Fashion at the Kyoto Costume Institute in Japan (1999), Airmail Clothing at the Musee de la Mode, Paris (1999), Century City at Tate Modern (2001), Godess: The Classical Mode at Moma, New York (2003) and Skin + Bones: Parallel Practices in Fashion and Architecture at Somerset House, London (2008). His first solo exhibition took place at the Groninger Museum, The Netherlands in 2005. In the same year, he represented Turkey at the 51st Art Biennale in Venice. Hussein Chalayan sells internationally and shows bi-annually in Paris. He has succeeded in working simultaneously in a commercial and conceptual vein, designing costumes for opera and dance performances and developing his ideas in film and installation work as well as in the fashion industry. He has recently been named as the ‘Creative Director for Sport Fashion” for Puma, further expanding his range of practice. He has routinely collaborated across disciplines with industrial designers, musicians, jewellers and textile designers. In 2006 Chalayan was awarded an MBE (Member of the British Empire) for services to the fashion industry. Hussein Chalayan won a prestigious Brit Insurance Designs of the Year Award 2008 for his Airborne, Autumn/Winter collection. This exhibition captures an impressive body of work and is a great insight to a creative who takes his work seriously, is generating work which is thought provoking, generous and beautiful. In a world which has undermined beauty to pantomime figures in paparazzi photos of the banal un-interesting celebrity culture, Chalayans attempts to bridge between disciplines creating a challenging commentary on the female body. These borrowings from various sources may seem to make him a little slippery to pin down, but actually there is memorable inventiveness which stays with you after the show. This first retrospective in London is impressive, from content and presentation, it confirms that there is so much more to come from the impressive and curious mind of Hussein Chalayan. The exhibition Hussein Chalayan, “From fashion and back” runs from 22 January – 17 May 2009 at the Design Museum, London
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