Denudity

Hood By Air Fall/Winter 2014

Remove the three letters, ignore the branding and the sportswear stripes. Take the pieces that no one dares to buy. Remove your clothes. Let the thoughts behind those garments uncover you.
/HORST

Paths Towards Modernity V

1. Versace Fall/Winter 2014
2. Richard Prince Untitled (Man's Hand On Pocket With Watch), 1980
3. Richard Prince Cowboys & Girlfriends, 1992
4. Versace Fall/Winter 2014
5. Versace Fall/Winter 2014
6. Richard Prince Untitled (Cowboy), 2001
7. Richard Prince Untitled (Original), 2009
8. Richard Prince Untitled, 2008
9. Versace 1980s
10. Versace Fall/Winter 2014
11. Versace Fall/Winter 2014
12. Richard Prince Nurse With Wings (Detail), 2003
13. Versace Fall/Winter 2013
14. Versace Fall/Winter 1994
15. Richard Prince Untitled, 2007

Richard Prince created the art practice of 'appropriation'. Regarded as one of the main players/actors of The Picture Generation he took pictures of pictures and declared them artworks of their own. With motorbike cowboys and vinyl nurses as subject, Prince plays with stereotypes and superstages them as cult of popular mainstream culture. And when cliché and sexism collide, Gianni and Donatella are not afar.
/HORST

Body Con

1. Allen Jones Cut-a-Way, 1976
2. Allen Jones IV, 1976
3. Allen Jones III, 1976

The scanning eye of Allen Jones. On women. On buyable love. On pop art. A study in high-heels and latex gloves. Revealing each layer of visual attraction and sensual exploration.
/HORST

Anew, A New Male

1. Comme des Garçons Spring/Summer 2014
2. Meadham Kirchhoff Spring/Summer 2014
3. J.W. Anderson Spring/Summer 2014
4. Martine Rose Fall/Winter 2013
5. Dimitri Arvanitis Graduate Collection 2013

I'd like to introduce 'Anew' as a new term for a new movement, a new school. After 'Antwerp 6' we have 'Anew 4+'. Constituting itself of Martine Rose, Meadham Kirchhoff, Dimitri Arvanitis and J.W. Anderson. Under kind custody of über-mother Rei Kawakubo, they are establishing what has been introduced as 'gender-bending', the 'metrosexual' or 'trans' and 'fear-male'.

Martine Rose delivers the core theme: 'Expect Perfection'. With lurex tops, cropped denim jackets and fabric-floating skrousers that recall Brenda Walsh, stilt and street walkers. Anderson, for his part, proposes blousy neckholder tops in decorative scarf/curtain prints - the after-effect of architectural experimentation. Kitchen, apron and housewife kitsch, rubber coats and sweat-wet hairdos are the identifying marks of Meadham Kirchhoff's fetishized male housewife. While Dimitri Arvanitis tarts up a clique of pony riding society gayls for their highly anticipated night out of the closet. So what and who is the Anew Male? A female pastiche? A reworked cliché? We see party girls, nurses, millionaire's devotees, call girls and ladyboys - starring in The Real Husbands of London, Paris and Antwerp. My question to you is: Are you one of them?
/HORST

A Photo Booth Biennale, Epilogue V

A second look at The Artwork Will Be Present, 2013.






1. Robert Mapplethorpe Calla Lily, 1988
2. Robert Mapplethorpe Leather Crotch, 1980
3. Robert Mapplethorpe Mountain, 1983
4. Robert Mapplethorpe Veronica Vera, 1982
5. Robert Mapplethorpe Self Portrait, 1980

By now, it should be evident that this 'exhibit' is about the aestheticism of the 'ugly' side: the human longing for the most basic means of survival. As victims of our nature, we do deny the subliminal. Yet, we cannot stop ataring at it. This gaze is being well provided by Mapplethorpe.
/HORST

A Photo Booth Biennale, Epilogue II

A second look at The Artwork Will Be Present, 2013.



1. Nobuyoshi Araki Colourscapes, 1991
2. Nobuyoshi Araki Untitled, 2010

It wasn't until a visit to Vienna that I had been fully introduced to the work of Nobuyoshi Araki. When sexual obsessions, fetishistic contemplation and the excuse to create 'art' disembogue into documents of ego and reach a high visual quality based on the 'low' human impulse.
/HORST

Post Paris XXX

A 'False Encyclopaedia' double feature with Fabian Hart, discussing:
Chanel Fall/Winter 2013

I like Karl Lagerfeld.

For being an entertainer, for his ready wit, his eloquence, his ingenuity, his business sense and unprecedented career.

For making history.

I don’t like Karl Lagerfeld for making history. As a designer. In particular for Chanel. The wool costumes that once, back in Gabrielle Chanel's day, embodied a new ideal of woman, have become obsolete, an antiquated retro-look that not only references Coco Chanel but also himself in the eighties when he took over the design house. Today all these references have become a mood board of heritage, a constant repetition of silhouettes, fabrics and ideas. He makes women (and super young models) look like old frumps and his rock and fetish references are a desperate attempt to be contemporary/relevant for the time we live in.

/FABIAN

I wish there was a splash of Makoto Aida's 'Harakiri School Girls' (2006), a hint of brutality. Yet, the constant ejection of seventy-six safe and seen-before bouclé looks unveils Karl's real perversity, his very own sadistic torture. In this sense, the collection as a holistic idea reflects the writings of Marquis de Sade – and is accordingly staged in a majestic venue that evokes scenes of secret underground cellars occupied by chained virgins and naked slaves in leather boots.
/HORST








1. Chanel Fall/Winter 2013
2. Richard Avedon Coco Chanel, 1958
3. Karl Lagerfeld The Muse And The Master, 1983
4. Kasimir Malewitsch Das Schwarze Quadrat, 1915
5. Man Ray The Imaginary Portrait of the Marquis de Sade, 1938
6. Makoto Aida Dog (Snow), 1998
7. Kevin Scott Hees Untitled
8. Chanel Fall/Winter 2013

More about Fabian Hart

Drawl

Steven Meisel - Prada Fall/Winter 2011

An über-stylized almost softcore presentation of perfect porcelain skin and young, innocent lolita beauty. When the spheres of reality blur from High Fashion to Second Life, woman and image are equally fetishized.
/HORST