Bringing together two of Japan’s most visionary and free spirited women, an installation from SANAA’s Kazuyo Sejima for Rei Kawakubo’s Comme des Garçons has opened at the Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo.
The spacial design by Sejima is reminiscent of the instillation that was held at SCAF Gallery in Sydney earlier this year, but the experience of the curved and subtly reflective space with Rei Kawakubo’s extraordinary shapes and colours floating throughout is overwhelmingly beautiful. The clothes cease to exist as individual garments and become unified as parts of one work, the full effect of which is best experienced from above, on ether side of the museum’s upper level.
The show makes evident many similarities between the architect and the designer; while Kawakubo shocked the fashion world in the 80s when she presented collections that showed complete disregard for things as fundamental to fashion as finished seams and hems, Sejima is well known for radically reconsidering accepted notions of space and built environments, also demanding thought and participation from anyone who experiences her work.
Separate to the installation there is a section dedicated to the artful interplay between two dimensionality and three dimensionality in Kawakubo’s work. Displaying garments on mannequins alongside photographs of the same garments removed from the body and laid flat, viewers can see how the clothes completely change form when they are on the body. The are virtually unrecognisable in the photographs, reminding us how closely aligned Kawakubo’s work is to the realms of sculpture and architecture.
The special exhibition is part of a larger fashion show at MOT from Kyoto Costume Institute called Luxury Reconsidered. Looking at society’s changing ideas about the meaning and purpose of luxury in fashion, it examines different cultural and historical perspectives including ostentatious luxury, the luxury of simplicity and more personal or intellectual luxury (which is where Comme des Garçons fits in). The exhibition continues until January 2010.
Amelia,
This is such an interesting exhibition. I absolutely love the presentation of Kazuyo Sejima’s Comme des Garçons collection. Thanks for sharing.
On another note – I have a question to ask you and would like to get in touch. I can’t find your contact information on this site. Can you please e-mail me? Thank you.
Comment by Kimberly — November 17, 2009 @ 9:15 amWow. She is the maven of colour. Can’t wait to see this when I go to Tokyo next month. Thank you.
Comment by miki — November 17, 2009 @ 4:09 pmso beautiful clothes. Unfortunately / can not visit the exhibition: I am in Germany and the exhibition ends in few days! Hope it will come to Europe! Rei Kawakakubo is really the best!
Comment by Andreas — January 27, 2010 @ 4:54 am[...] via: Big in Japan [...]
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