In the last few weeks I have neglected exploring the connection between art and fashion. Though I mentioned in previous posts fashion or photographic exhibitions I haven’t given a lot of space to art. I’ll try to make up for things today with a brief post on Graham Little.
Born in Scotland, Little studied at Dundee's Duncan of Jordanstone College before getting his MA from London’s Goldsmiths College in 1997. Since then he has taken part in various solo and group exhibitions internationally with his work that filters the world of art through fashion.
I first became aware of Little's work when he did a solo exhibition at London’s Alison Jacques Gallery that featured drawings inspired by images from 1980s fashion magazine ads. I can’t draw, so seeing the details Little featured in his coloured pencil and gouache portraits, made me incredibly jealous as the artist managed to perfectly recreate the glamorous clothes and accessories of the women he portrayed in different environments, often surrounded by everyday objects or posing in stylish backgrounds.
It was in that occasion that I discovered Little had done more drawings inspired by models in 2003 that featured young women on roller skates and skateboards precariously balanced on plinths as if they were sculptures and with a light that recalled Caravaggio’s paintings. I’m not sure of the technique Little uses, but he seems to be able to draw textile patterns in 3D.
His models often look like ghosts that, coming out of fashion magazines, have entered a painting: Little seems to deconstruct the fashion environment they belong to and to give the models the chance to live in a brand new arty world. By displacing the models from the ads or from the pages of a fashion magazine and transporting them into a more conventional art world, Little tries to challenge the preconceptions of the viewers.
Last month the Alison Jacques Gallery organised a new exhibition of Little’s works, among them there was his sculpture “Facts are Stupid Things (Fruit Vs Fashion)”, a mixed media collage of cube-like components decorated with still-life motifs and bright colliding geometric patterns with what looked like a runway protruding from it. The exhibition also featured a triptych of drawings on paper representing his pregnant wife. The portraits reminded me a bit of his early drawings of models, as he used again Caravaggio’s light in them, while the poses in which he portrayed his wife seemed to be taken from glamorous fashion magazines.
I would love to see a spread in a fashion magazine featuring Graham Little's drawings (maybe with models wearing garments from the Spring/Summer '09 collections) or a photo shoot that uses his collage-like sculptures as props. I hope this will really happen in 2009 as I'm sure Little's work would fit nicely in an avant-garde fashion mag.
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