Using Tumblr and Photoshop as his version of a colour palette and paint brush, Matt Wisniewski
is something of a 21st century-style Dadaist, minus the anarchy.
Desolate winter forests stretch as vast landscapes across the face of
black and white portraits, whilst side profiles become fantastically
distorted through swirls of breaking waves. Things that should not fit
together, strangely and beautifully do in the work of the Brooklyn-based
artist.
"I don't care at all about a blend of human and nature. I
just play around with combining things and it just so happens that a
head provides a nice discrete canvas. I use a lot of painting, drawings,
really whatever I can find," Wisniewski is quick to admit however. It
seems then, that behind his complex imagery, there lies a more
instinctual, subconscious and ultimately emotional way of working. An
interesting anecdote for those that argue the 'coldness' of digital
artwork is incomparable to the physical medium of canvas and paint.
"Realistically, I don't see any reason why future tools couldn't match
the feel of their analog counterparts. For collage, digital tools open
up a lot of possibilities that just can't be accomplished with
traditional cut and paste methods," Wisniewski says.
Having used
Photoshop since his early teens, the Philadelphia-native reflects on his
work as becoming increasingly refined, but not without a price. "From
experience I tend to experiment less; there is sort of a downside there
from my perspective. Previously it would take forever and it would look
awful, but it would be fun and I'd have a new idea out there. I still do
that sometimes but it's harder when you know how it's going to turn
out," the web developer adds.
Having created series' with titles
such as Wreckage, Five Minutes to Live and Cold Embrace, one could read a
variety of apocalyptic theories into his work, but the artist himself
appears to have a deep and forgiving love for the process of creation.
"I've done some terrible collages. But it's out there, and I couldn't
destroy most of it even if I wanted to. Some of my most popular work
would have been deleted by now if it was just sitting on my computer,"
he explains. Instead, as Wisniewski reflectively says, "Once I'm done
working on something, it doesn't really have anything to do with me
anymore. I had my fun, now everyone else gets to have theirs."
Read the full article here.
For most people the word alcohol conjures up
memories of a stumbling, drunken stupor. For Claire Barrow, it
translated into a collection of finely illustrated and hand painted silk
shift dresses, rubber pieces, Pollock-esque cigarette trousers, and of
course her signature, the leather jacket. This season she produced them
bearing ghoul faces and otherworldly creatures, applied with a swirly
brush stroke that in itself denoted an intoxicated experience. "I was
looking at all the old good drunks, like Charles Bukowski. The regality
of alcohol packaging directly inspired all of the prints," the designer
said backstage at her S/S 13 show and official London Fashion Week
debut, presented as part of the Fashion East lineup.
Barrow's
unique vision, be it this season's inspiration or the Surrealist
movement and promiscuity for her graduate collection, has not gone
unnoticed. There are the pieces she created for Rihanna's Loud tour on
one hand, collaborations with the likes of Joseph and Underground on the
other. What marks Barrow's work as especially refreshing is the
handcrafted aspect of it all, a return to a punk, DIY aesthetic, but
with an added finesse. There may be the raw, in your face energy and
attitude about her creations, but at the same time an appreciation for
something more delicate. An ode to art forms of the past and a certain
sensibility that is often overlooked in the genre of safety pin earrings
and slashed trousers that her aesthetic is often associated with. In
the same way that Barrow doesn't fully commit to either womenswear or
menswear in her collections, neither does she allow herself to be
pigeonholed into a certain category of fashion design.
"I like
the aspect that at this point, having just graduated, I am really in
touch with what I am making, it is all very hands on," says the
22-year-old, who completed her Womenswear degree at University of
Westminster. That approach extends to her carefully painted name on the
back of every leather jacket, giving each design the feeling of being
produced by an exceptionally talented friend, rather than a fashion
brand. Her intimate mode of creation presents a comforting antidote to
the ever-quickening pace of the fashion industry's mass production
methods. Barrow sums up the raison d'être of her young label by
passionately stating, "This is my artwork. It's great to see people
wearing something that I have had such close contact with".
Read the full article here.
After a rocky start which included dropping out of his BA Fashion course
at LCF during the first term of his final year and a "more difficult
than anticipated" navigation through the fashion industry, now, it
seems, there is nothing that could possibly keep Ryan Lo down.
Aside from being shortlisted for the G-Shock Spirit of
Toughness Award, features in the likes of LOVE Magazine and artistic
collaborations for the Serpentine Gallery's Dreamy Awards, there is that
not-so-small thing called Fashion East in the 22-year-old's life. "The
second time I went back to college and graduated, I said I wanted to do
Fashion East. When it finally happened, it just felt like a dream," Lo
says, the astonishment in his voice still hinting at his slight
inconceivability of it all. Born and raised in Hong Kong before moving
to London at age 16, he recounts his way into fashion as something that
"happened spontaneously, one thing led to another". Yet one can't help
but get the impression that his career path is the result of
predestination rather than pure coincidence.
His first on-schedule show as part of the Fashion East
line-up this London Fashion Week was a reminder of why he, despite only
being three collections into his own label, is a name to be reckoned
with. Lo's S/S 13 range— a colourful mix of lace, polka-dot print and
corseted gowns — presented a sexier take on the designer's signature
technique of tight smocking. Not only is he bringing an intriguing
textural aspect to the stereotypically 'cashmere twinset' genre of
knitwear, there is also a refreshing intelligence behind his designs.
"I design for a woman who is between intellectual and
ditzy. I'm interested in the idea of broadening that conceptual range
instead of it just being 'pretty'," Lo explains, adding that for him,
designing is "all about femininity". "There is something epically
powerful about being womanly, a kind of sexy, non-sexy" he says. This
female prototype especially becomes evident in the subversiveness of the
young talent's multifarious designs. His graduate collection toughened
up traditional female prototypes, A/W 12 took his aesthetic for a more
tomboyish, youthful spin. With this collection, despite its strong doses
of pink, Lo again seemed to be questioning and exploring. Rather than
reinstating and taking at face value preconceived notions of what
today's modern woman wants to wear. But all theoretical interpretations
aside, in the end Lo humbly admits, "I just want women to be
themselves".
View the full article here.
