The Barbican’s show of the season is Dirty Looks, newly opened at the centre’s art gallery, an exploration of rebellion against conventional beauty ideals celebrating the “dirty side” of fashion in ruined frocks and stained jeans.
Dirty Looks is underpinned by an ecological connection – the introduction of dirt, debris and decay into clothing styles over the eras not only defies conventions but, as it is reborn in the work of young designers, proffers a new way of thinking about sustainability in fashion now and in the near future.
Works by the likes of Hussein Chalayan, Alexander McQueen, Vivienne Westwood, Miguel Adrover and Maison Margiela, appear alongside emerging designers such as Elena Velez, Yuima Nakazato and IAMISIGO.
The major, long overdue and highly anticipated Lee Miller retrospective at Tate Britain, curated by Hilary Floe, opens at last this week. The result of two years research into Lee’s archives facilitate by her estate, the exhibition is a thorough and in-depth account of Miller’s work from the 1920s to the 1960s.
More than 250 photographs – the majority of them vintage prints – are on view in this vast show that reveals how prolific Miller was, (she produced more than 60,000 negatives in her lifetime). It also captures the breadth of her interests, as she moved from Surrealism to fashion photography to the war photography she is best known for.
Miller’s importance in cultural memory was consolidated with the release of a biopic film released last year and starring Kate Winslet, but this exhibition will show unknown and overlooked facets to the artist’s practice with new prints, rare pictures and never seen before photographs. Unmissable.
Check out The Wick’s interview with Hilary Floe to get the inside scoop.
The mighty Marina Abramović returns to London just in time for Frieze week, with an unexpected show at Saatchi Yates. Abramović’s last major exhibition in the UK was at the Royal Academy two years ago. It marks new territory for an artist famed for taking risks and surprising her audiences: “If you experiment, you have to fail. By definition, experimenting means going to territory where you’ve never been, where failure is very possible. How can you know you’re going to succeed? Having the courage to face the unknown is so important”.
This solo exhibition focuses on two of the artist’s most iconic performance video pieces, Blue Period and Red Period, turning them for the first time into 1200 photographic stills that will fill the gallery and allow visitors to experience the performances in a completely new way. Each still will be individually available to buy.
Both videos, shot in close-up, explore the evocative symbolism of each colour through gesture, expression, enactment and endurance, creating kind of confrontational and uncomfortable viewing experience Abramović is famous for, pushing us to ask difficult questions and face disquieting truths that reside in us.