Around a year ago shortly before Christmas I discovered Innocent smoothie bottles with knit beanies while lunching at Cojean, the organic canteen of Paris famed department store Printemps. I immediately thought how cute is that. These bottles are actually wearing beanies to protect their – well caps – “against the cold of the fridge”. A few weeks later fall 2014 collections were presented and as usual knitwear was a repeating theme. But this season it wasn’t just about coziness. Much more at several brands the sweaters were that big that they gave a feeling of the wearer being caught in a spiders web.  At Commes des Garçons the idea of human beings locked up in woolen textiles spinning around the body got really scary! In June we visited Dover Street Market, the multi floor shopping empire owned by the Japanese brand Commes des Garçons. Again something knitted caught my eye! One of the three several floor spanning columns was covered in colorful knit reminding me of South American native crafts and evoking joyful childhood memories. Until that time to me woolen textiles had always been something functional that keeps you warm and creates a cosy atmosphere at home. But far beyond that I started to realize that they can evoke strong feelings ranging from cuteness to discomfort. However, I had never seen or been aware of sculptures or installations made out of textile! Are there artist working mainly or solely with textiles?

Besides being functional and decorative textiles can evoke strong emotions, like cuteness in case of the bottle beanies, fear in case of the Commes des Garcons fall 2014 runway look (pic style.com) or happiness in case of the knit enveloped column at DSM NYC (pic http://experiencenomad.com)

Continue reading →

Strolling through Frieze Sculpture Park on a sunny Wednesday morning with two bored children on hand there was nothing around that seemed to make the hours until opening of the fair shorter. But at a time I had almost given up there it was. A giant wooden Pinocchio, Mickey Mouse or Simpsonesque clown? Whatever it was my children were immediately delighted. While they started exploring the, OK lets call its sculpture, I somehow couldn’t help but wonder. I would consider myself as a person with quite some interest in contemporary art, but I would really have allocated this piece more to a theme park than a contemporary art fair.

KAWS “Small lie”, (2013) at Frieze Sculpture Park, London Oct 2014

Continue reading →