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gallery

Hawthorne & Heaney Visits the Yayoi Kusama Exhibition

December 13, 2018 by Intern

The exhibition features new paintings, including works from the iconic My Eternal Soul series, painted bronze pumpkin and flower sculptures, and a large-scale Infinity Mirrored Room, created for this presentation, Kusama’s twelfth exhibition at the gallery.

Hawthorne & Heaney Visits the Yayoi Kusama Exhibition London Hand Embroidery

Yayoi Kusama exhibition Victoria Miro: Infinity Mirrored Room, 2018

Upon arrival, we were ushered up a vertigo inducingly narrow staircase into a dark upstairs, after a brief queue, we were told that we will have 60 seconds in the Infinity Mirrored Room. Infinity Mirror Rooms are an iconic staple of Kusama’s repertoire of work; once these rooms open their doors to a new city, social media swiftly becomes inundated with these tiny universes of cosmic infinity. 60 seconds is nowhere near long enough to fully appreciate this all encompassing experience, however one cannot complain as the queue was but a fraction of the size of a theme park’s.
Hawthorne & Heaney Visits the Yayoi Kusama Exhibition London Hand Embroidery

Courtesy Ota Fine Arts, Tokyo/Singapore/Shanghai and Victoria Miro, London/Venice. © YAYOI KUSAMA

 

In the following room, we were greeted with the vision of three immense spotted pumpkin sculptures, another recurring theme in Kusama’s work. Accompanying the sculpture are paintings from the series ‘Dots Obsession’ and other polka dot dominated paintings, this is almost a real-time amalgamation of the whole body experience from the Infinity Room and the everyday life as we see it; fusing both installation and painting together to create a quasi-reality.  

Hawthorne & Heaney Visits the Yayoi Kusama Exhibition London Hand Embroidery

Courtesy Ota Fine Arts, Tokyo/Singapore/Shanghai and Victoria Miro, London/Venice. © YAYOI KUSAMA

 

Once through this room, we were guided outside to step amongst three larger-than-life sculptures of childlike fantasy polka dotted flowers. Walking through this sculpture terrace feels like entering a scene from The Day of the Triffids, only on a sugar high. Kusama’s poignant hallucinations, for which her art is therapy, are clearly an inspiration for these gigantuan florals. Almost in correlation with Kusama’s rise to fame in recent years, has been the explosion of discussion around mental health and destigmatisation of mental illness.

Hawthorne & Heaney Visits the Yayoi Kusama Exhibition London Hand Embroidery

Courtesy Ota Fine Arts, Tokyo/Singapore/Shanghai and Victoria Miro, London/Venice. © YAYOI KUSAMA

 

The final room in the exhibition consisted of a wall of 20 square canvases presented edge to edge; each canvas shows a completely unique composition, we could gather no running theme in these paintings bar Kusama’s distinctive painting style. The sensation of feeling overwhelmed returns; each canvas portrays a keyhole insight into Kusama’s mind, thousands of tiny staring eyes wriggling around in the negative space upon the canvas surface. The shapes appear to move around your peripheral vision; as if they are slothing about when their guardian is not watching.

Hawthorne & Heaney Visits the Yayoi Kusama Exhibition London Hand Embroidery

Our intern stood next to the paintings for some size reference!

 

We left the exhibition feeling satisfied that our pattern cravings have been satiated – for the meantime at least! Although small, the exhibition packed a mighty, colour filled punch. We’ll be keeping our eyes peeled for the next Kusama exhibition in London anytime soon and will be sure to let you know in advance!

 

Yayoi Kusama – The Moving Moment When I Went To The Universe Exhibition Visit

3 October – 21 December 2018

Free Timed Tickets, Currently Sold Out

Victoria Miro Gallery, 16 Wharf Road, N1 7RW

By Jessica Strain

Filed Under: Embroidery Tagged With: art, Exhibition Visit, fine art, gallery, London, The Moving Moment When I Went To The Universe, things to do in london, Victoria Miro Gallery, visit, Yayoi Kusama

Hawthorne & Heaney visit Christian Dior: Designer of Dreams

December 21, 2017 by Natasha Searls-Punter

View this post on Instagram

Runway through the years #Dior #runway #couture

A post shared by Tasha Searls-Punter (@tashasearlspunter) on Dec 21, 2017 at 3:44am PST

Every now and then, there is an exhibition that we feel we just have to see, and usually one holds out until it (hopefully) comes to London. However the risk of missing out on ‘Christian Dior: Designer of Dreams’ at Musee Des Arts Decoratifs was one that was too great and we felt compelled to go. So last month, Natasha made the trip to Paris to see the much hyped display.Hawthorne & Heaney visit Christian Dior: Designer of Dreams London Hand Embroidery

The exhibition begins with some history about Christian Dior’s family and his life before setting up the house as an art gallery owner and fashion illustrator. A brief introduction to the facets of the house it followed by the first main gallery. In this room, each section is divided by colour, each cabinate displaying a pallette with a variety of dresses, 12” minatures and accessories.

Hawthorne & Heaney visit Christian Dior: Designer of Dreams London Hand Embroidery
Christian Dior: Designer of Dreams
Hawthorne & Heaney visit Christian Dior: Designer of Dreams London Hand Embroidery
Christian Dior: Designer of Dreams
Hawthorne & Heaney visit Christian Dior: Designer of Dreams London Hand Embroidery
Christian Dior: Designer of Dreams

As an embroiderer, one of the most outstanding aspects of this exhibition was the level of detail you could see in the gowns and the emphasis that was placed on showing off the incredible textures. These were reflected in the papercut flowers and foliage that hung from the ceiling in a few of the rooms which were inspired by the fragrances that make up Dior’s famous perfumes.

Hawthorne & Heaney visit Christian Dior: Designer of Dreams London Hand Embroidery
Christian Dior: Designer of Dreams
Hawthorne & Heaney visit Christian Dior: Designer of Dreams London Hand Embroidery
Christian Dior: Designer of Dreams
Hawthorne & Heaney visit Christian Dior: Designer of Dreams London Hand Embroidery
Christian Dior: Designer of Dreams
Hawthorne & Heaney visit Christian Dior: Designer of Dreams London Hand Embroidery
Christian Dior: Designer of Dreams
Hawthorne & Heaney visit Christian Dior: Designer of Dreams London Hand Embroidery
dior 1
Hawthorne & Heaney visit Christian Dior: Designer of Dreams London Hand Embroidery
Christian Dior: Designer of Dreams

Some of the textiles could be descibed as quite tradtional beading, whilst others would be considered to be more experimental, playing with feathers and layering but all were undeniably beautiful.

Hawthorne & Heaney visit Christian Dior: Designer of Dreams London Hand Embroidery
Christian Dior: Designer of Dreams
Hawthorne & Heaney visit Christian Dior: Designer of Dreams London Hand Embroidery
Christian Dior: Designer of Dreams
Hawthorne & Heaney visit Christian Dior: Designer of Dreams London Hand Embroidery
Christian Dior: Designer of Dreams
Hawthorne & Heaney visit Christian Dior: Designer of Dreams London Hand Embroidery
Christian Dior: Designer of Dreams
Hawthorne & Heaney visit Christian Dior: Designer of Dreams London Hand Embroidery
Christian Dior: Designer of Dreams
Hawthorne & Heaney visit Christian Dior: Designer of Dreams London Hand Embroidery
Christian Dior: Designer of Dreams

They also had an in house embroiderer demonstrating some tambour beading onto a panel of one of the gown and chatting with the public about what she was doing. The piece was framed up in a large slate frame, with one end complete and, the other drafted on. The drafts and drawings for the piece were hanging to one side of her with a partically completed gown on display behind her. The finished gown was part of the final gallery to put the whole process into context.

View this post on Instagram

Tambour beading demonstration #Dior #tambour #embroidery

A post shared by Tasha Searls-Punter (@tashasearlspunter) on Dec 21, 2017 at 3:28am PST

Hawthorne & Heaney visit Christian Dior: Designer of Dreams London Hand Embroidery
Christian Dior: Designer of Dreams
Hawthorne & Heaney visit Christian Dior: Designer of Dreams London Hand Embroidery
Christian Dior: Designer of Dreams
Hawthorne & Heaney visit Christian Dior: Designer of Dreams London Hand Embroidery
Christian Dior: Designer of Dreams

The white gallery was reminiscent of the layout of the Savage Beauty exhibition at the V&A museum in London where you were dwarfed by the pieces, however here the emphasis was placed purely on the cut of the garments. Each one is the toile of a gown we had already seen in the body of the exhibition to explain the development of each piece and the alterations process it has been through to get to the final design.

Hawthorne & Heaney visit Christian Dior: Designer of Dreams London Hand Embroidery

View this post on Instagram

Floor to ceiling toiles #dior #paris #dressmaking

A post shared by Tasha Searls-Punter (@tashasearlspunter) on Nov 10, 2017 at 2:41pm PST

Final last gallery was all the real show stopping gowns, the space itself adds to the gravity of the items on display. They enhanced the experience with moving light displays across the walls which gave the impression of gold snow, unashamedly playing up to the couture fairytale.

Hawthorne & Heaney visit Christian Dior: Designer of Dreams London Hand Embroidery
Christian Dior: Designer of Dreams
Hawthorne & Heaney visit Christian Dior: Designer of Dreams London Hand Embroidery
Christian Dior: Designer of Dreams
Hawthorne & Heaney visit Christian Dior: Designer of Dreams London Hand Embroidery
Christian Dior: Designer of Dreams
Hawthorne & Heaney visit Christian Dior: Designer of Dreams London Hand Embroidery
Christian Dior: Designer of Dreams
Hawthorne & Heaney visit Christian Dior: Designer of Dreams London Hand Embroidery
Christian Dior: Designer of Dreams
Hawthorne & Heaney visit Christian Dior: Designer of Dreams London Hand Embroidery
Christian Dior: Designer of Dreams
Hawthorne & Heaney visit Christian Dior: Designer of Dreams London Hand Embroidery
Christian Dior: Designer of Dreams
Hawthorne & Heaney visit Christian Dior: Designer of Dreams London Hand Embroidery
Christian Dior: Designer of Dreams
Hawthorne & Heaney visit Christian Dior: Designer of Dreams London Hand Embroidery
Christian Dior: Designer of Dreams

View this post on Instagram

Dior: designer of dreams was magical! #paris #fashionexhibition #dior

A post shared by Tasha Searls-Punter (@tashasearlspunter) on Nov 9, 2017 at 10:45am PST

It would be fair to say this exhibition was excellent, going around it all took at least 2 and a half hours going through it all but one could have stayed much longer. The amount of pieces on display and the generous space that was given to each one made it a very leisurely experience. I really enjoyed the way they played with scale in the lay out, starting off the with minatures gallery, then allowing you to get up close with the real sized pieces and then emmersing you in the white and final galleries.

If you would like to read another perspective on the exhibition, have a read of Tina Isaac-Goizé’s thoughts for Vogue here.

‘Christian Dior: Designer of Dreams’ is on show at Musee Des Arts Decoratifs in Paris until 7th Jan 2018 so catch it while you have the chance!

Filed Under: Embroidery, Fashion Tagged With: beading, couture, Designer, designer of dreams, dior, display, dresses, embroidery, exhibition, feathers, gallery, house of dior, layering, musee des arts decoratifs, paris, ribbon, tambour, textiles

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