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An eclectic group of contemporary artists from around the world have been chosen by Chanel to explore elements of its signature handbag through their art. We've profiled a few of them.
Yoko Ono, widow of Beatle John Lennon, is probably the best known of the 20-strong group of artists involved in the Chanel project. Following ancient Japanese tradition, Ono invites visitors to Mobile Art to write a wish on a piece of rice paper and to tie it to the branches of a tree. At the end of the exhibition, all wishes are collected and go to Imagine Peace Tower in Reykjavík, Iceland. Ono's wish tree is the conclusion of the Mobile Art route.
Pierre et Gilles are a couple, an entity whose work - painted photographs – is inseparable from their life and daily surrounds. Their portraits deal with the same recurring themes – stars and friends, sailors and princes, saints and sinners, paradise and the bottom of the ocean, iconography and magic, all mixed together in a world of love and grace. In their work, they want aesthetic perfection. "It's partly photography and partly painting," Pierre explains. "The idealised moment is fixed, and then Gilles keeps coming back to it with his paintbrush, there's no time limit."
Subodh Gupta, the most outstanding member of the new generation of Indian artists, is known principally for his sculptures made out of traditional Indian kitchen utensils. For him, the stainless steel utensils symbolise the rise of the middle classes and the spread of a standardised way of life in India. "I have a particular affection for the kitchen," he explains. "When I was young, I saw the kitchen as a place for prayer, a sort of temple. For me, it's a very spiritual place. Of course, the kitchen is also a symbol of daily life." Gupta also does figurative paintings but whatever his medium, he always conducts a critical discourse on the state of society.
Lee Bul is considered to be the most original South Korean artist of her generation. She is already associated with Chanel by an image of her cybernetic sculpture, Light Years, which is projected onto the walls of the staircase at Rue Cambon, Coco Chanel's one-time studio. The monumental plastic sculpture is crowned with hundreds of pieces of re-assembled bags and chains, and is homage by the artist to the spirit of Madame Chanel.
Sylvie Fleury, from Switzerland, has an intensely feminine personality. Her interest is in the high desirability of luxury products. Her first exhibition was a collection of logo-ed carry bags from prestigious fashion brands. It also contained iconic objects from the world of fashion, including magazines, perfumes, slippers and bags.
Loris Cecchini became known in the late 1990s for his creations of everyday objects made of soft, malleable objects – cinema seats crumbling in on themselves, doors buckling under their own weight, a deflated computer room. His installations give the strange yet familiar impression that the world has been overwhelmed by a vast existential fatigue. Cecchini is now re-sculpting and re-directing the facades of buildings – in model-form – in surprising and surrealistic directions.
By Carolyn Ford |
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