Inspired by a chance encounter with a unique beam of stray sunlight at The Chapel at Sculpture Square, Light Matters is a site-specific and time-based installation made in collaboration with the sun.
The project aspires to compose a visual poem with the splendor of natural light to transform the 19th-century-heritage-building-turned-gallery into a piece of four-dimensional artwork and, in turn, open up a free space of quiet in the middle of a bustling city.
While studying the ongoing Resort 2013 collections, I noticed the prevalence of designers looking to art for inspiration. Marc Jacobs cited Cindy Sherman’s clown series as a starting point for his resort collection, which featured either oversize or shrunken proportions in kitschy, psychedelic colours, reminiscent of the morbid resplendence of Sherman’s clowns. The New York-based design duo of Preen, Justin Thornton and Thea Bregazzi, referenced Jeff Koons for resort, using “plastic-fantasic, joyfully fake blooms inspired by those that Koons creates”, writes Style.com editor Matthew Schneier. Maria Grazia Chiuri and Pier Paolo Piccioli of the effortlessly cool, invigorated Valentino inundated their mood board with Andy Warhol’s portrait paintings, and used his neon colours as inspiration. As creative director of Louis Vuitton, Jacobs also recently announced a collaboration with Japanese artist Yayoi Kusama, which will include a new collection featuring her signature dot motif. This partnership will signal the third time Louis Vuitton has collaborated with artists: once with Stephen Sprouse in 2001, and once with Takashi Murakami in 2003.
After going up what seemed like an endless series of escalators, I knew I was on the right floor of the Tate Modern when I was greeted by large red polka dotted spheres which were suspended from the ceiling.
Yayoi Kusama is without doubt one of Japan’s most famous artists. Her obsessive nature of covering canvases, sculptures and ordinary household objects with polka dots and infinity nets has now become her trademark. (more…)