Blackwhite
SHOWstudio, Bruton Place, London
Blackwhite
SHOWstudio, Bruton Place, London
As Carrie Scott's first exhibition as curator of the SHOWstudio.com Shop, they launched Blackwhite an exhibition featuring artwork by Cecil Beaton, Simon Foxton, Amanda Harlech, Michael Howells, Nick Knight, Irving Penn, and Peter Saville as well as iconic artefacts from Chanel, Maison Martin Margiela and Visionaire.
In tandem with the physical exhibition, SHOWstudio.com broadcast performances by Judy Blame, Edward Griffiths and Gareth Pugh from the LiveStudio in Bruton place. Objects made during the LiveStudio were then displayed in the Shop.
Blackwhite was conceptually limitless, structured only around the most celebrated aesthetic relationship in fashion: black and white. While the stark palette will tie the pieces together, the diverse range of mediums and objects visually made way for new associations and investigations into the aesthetics of black and white.
Including Irving Penn's famed portrait of Lisa Fonssagrives, Harlequin Dress (1950), and photographs by Cecil Beaton and Nick Knight that have never been exhibited, the show is anchored by the elegant simplicity of black and white fashion portraiture. Against the clarity of these carefully composed photographs, bespoke sculptures by Amanda Harlech and Peter Saville mingle among iconic fashion artefacts like Michael Howell's "drained"" Union Jack, sections of floor from the infinity cove of Studio 4 at Park Royal Studios West London, Chanel Haute Couture headpieces made by Kamo for Karl Lagerfeld's internationally-acclaimed S/S 2009 show, and two of Visionaire's earliest issues, Black and White.
Together, the sharp contrast of these varied objects and images became a landscape full of new consequence. Minimalist totems are built from Haute Couture headpieces and compacted layers of paint from a floor; appropriated erotic furniture and a colourless flag take on new formality; a simple drawer and reworked jacket become grave memorials to love, life and death.
