What is collaboration?
Is an art collaboration a single art piece or a project completed by multiple artists, all contributing to the same art piece? Or is it, multiple pieces by multiple people brought together by one person? Can curation be classed as a collaboration? Can we call it a collaboration if it's working with nature or animals? Here our resident writer talks about art and fashion as a collaboration…
Art on the runway
Is art fashion? And is fashion art? It’s an age long debate that many people have had their say on, but there isn’t really a one size fits all answer. In some cases, it’s easier to define the boundary when artists stick to traditional art mediums and designers stick to the catwalk. But what about when collaboration is brought into the picture and art and fashion merge together?
Iconic Japanese artist Yayoi Kusama’s is the perfect representation of this example. The artist who is famous for her bold polka dot compulsively over the top patterns and sparkling infinity rooms has become a cultural figure, even for those who recognise the visuals but don’t know who the artist is. This widespread popularity of her works has made her in demand and ‘on trend’. With this, it’s no surprise that those in the world of fashion wanted to capture some of this unique visual language and so they did. In 2012 fashion giant Louis Vuitton announced a range of pieces that were made in collaboration with the artist, featuring her signature dots across signature Louis Vuitton bags. These bags have been collectable pieces, wanted by all in the creative sphere, almost as pieces of sculpture rather than a handbag. Not only does fashion meet art in design here, but the boundaries are also blurred with the documentation and advertising of the products. The products are advertised in photographs that use Kusama’s work as a backdrop, with every element of the composition dedicated to her signature style. The high fashion shoot looks like more like a still of an installation with a Kusama performance artist in than a typical advertisement you would see on a billboard. Indeed, this continues, it’s now been teased by the brand that another collaboration is coming in 2023 and like with the last campaign, everything from window displays to physical products will see the fusion of art and fashion.
Now with a very different approach, we consider Scandinavian artists Michael Elmgreen and Ingar Dragset’s take on collaboration with fashion which is somewhat more controversial. One of the most iconic contemporary outdoor sculptures in the art world is ‘Prada Marfa’ (2005). Along the desolate route 90 in Jeff Davis County, Texas, passers by are met with a small replica Prada shop sat on its own with no company. The shop, which cannot be entered features genuine signature pieces from the Prada 2005 fall collection. Like a museum, these pieces are displayed as icons of the time and the boundaries of sculpture and commerce are blurred. The presence of such an out of place designer store in the desert also created intentional conversations around the place fashion has in our lives, through the avenue of art. Although a more one-sided collaboration with the fashion world, this collaboration of worlds meeting in the piece is essential in answering the age-old questions of when art becomes fashion and vice versa. Unfortunately, in recent years, the piece has been heavily vandalised, and the store looted, the piece started to look very different covered in graffiti with smashed windows. Although bad for Prada, if anything this helped the artists in the long run to get the PR and coverage to add to the conversation of the place of fashion in our society and in creativity.
It seems with these collaborations, there’s certainly an area for art and fashion to co-exist as both visual and conceptual creations. Although often separated by the different levels of commerce in both worlds, it’s clear that in both the art and fashion world, creators are looking to find a visual language to start conversations and inspire culture, an aim to which collaboration is key. Not only does the passer by wanting the latest Louis Vuitton handbag buy the product, they unknowingly promote and step into an artist’s movement. Similarly, passers by seeking the latest art installation trend in Texas unknowingly inspire a whole conversation around the place fashion has in our society. Art on the runway and vice versa, encourages a new dimension of creativity that not only puts style into composition but awakens both industries to fresh narratives of the world we live in.
