Art is an expression of the human dilemma, both dark and light, whether it be the Biblical story of David and Goliath playing out metaphorically between Florence and Rome ... or one lonely man’s calling to cull the darkness of the psyche and find beauty in a lace dress slashed and bloodied to call attention to the perversions of war. —ALECIA STEPHENS PHOTOGRAPHY COURTESY OF METROPOLITAN MUSEUM OF ART
tragic suicide in the spring of 2010. (Kate Middleton paid him tribute when she chose Sarah Burton, a woman who started as an intern at McQueen’s studio, to design her wedding dress and created a global goosebump the moment it was announced!) I studied fashion in college and spent 15 years as a designer and dressmaker and almost dropped to my knees in the presence of McQueen’s early tailored black jackets — sculpture in cloth, with reverent celebration of the female form and exquisite craft. I soon learned, thanks to my audio guide and a bit of my own observation, that the clothing was more costume and theater than fashion. McQueen was an intellectual, a poet and a melancholic soul. His art expressed rage at the English in a collection called the “Rape of Scotland.” It expressed our longing to be seen yet our simultaneous discomfort with it when he turned mirrors on the audience at a fashion show — for 45 minutes! As guests of the exhibit, we experienced it ourselves and many slid quietly to the next display when their own bodies were revealed to the crowd. At the end of one of his fashion shows, he turned model Kate Moss into a hologram. As if an act from Cirque du Soleil, with wind blowing the wedding gown she was wearing made of 7,500 circles of silk organza, she danced in midair to wrenchingly sorrowful operatic music. Within
minutes, she faded away into a spot of light. Visitors, including Lee and me, were mesmerized. All eyes were on the prize. It was not unlike the visitors with all eyes on the David. On the final nights of the McQueen show in August, the Met stayed open until midnight to respond to demand. It is reported that the lines extended out the museum and around the block into Central Park. The wait was three hours to get into the building with another two hours to get into the exhibit once inside. The museum added 25,000 new members during this exhibit, with a total of more than 660,000 attending. Art is an expression of the human dilemma, both dark and light, whether it be the Biblical story of David and Goliath playing out metaphorically between Florence and Rome during the Renaissance or one lonely man’s calling to cull the darkness of the psyche and find beauty in a lace dress slashed and bloodied to call attention to the perversions of war. Pilgrims make their way to these secular “holy places,” these soul places — thousands upon thousands. We wouldn’t go if we didn’t need the artists to express all those things we can’t quite say out loud. The collective urge to experience the numinous through art is at play in both of these stories — the touch of marble and the work of the human hand in defense of the soul in search of radiance.
Artful-LivingMag.com Artful Living
| Autumn 2011
193