The House of Dior

Happy November! 2017 pretty much marks the year of the most gallery visitations for me so far. The only thing I was bummed about was not being able to see Studio Ghibli in Japan this year – my second time missing out on ordering tickets. Maybe the next time I’ll get lucky!

My gallery adventures continue with The House of Dior exhibition which is just about to wrap up in 3 days. This is the last major exhibition held at the NGV for the year.

I didn’t know much about Christian Dior prior to this exhibition however I’m a big follower of Yves Saint Laurent and I eventually learned that YSL worked for Dior at the age of 21. This was his first major gig in the fashion industry and Dior had trained him up to become the first creative director of his brand (other than Dior himself). Their legacy lives on to this day and what I love the most is that the YSL and Dior stores in Chadstone sit right across each other, I get the fuzziest feelings everytime I walk past it.

The House of Dior showcases 70 years of designs by all creative directors including YSL.

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Tomokazu Matsuyama

On the days I’m working, I like to take mini walks often going around streets nearby my workplace, even ending up in gardens and parks on the outskirts of the CBD. Of course, there’s plenty of different routes around the city and last week I felt like pacing through Collins St for some window shopping therapy.

That wasn’t the case as soon as I saw a colorful corflute sign in front of 101 Collins St, “Outside looking in Tomokazu Matsuyama”. The entrance to the artists’ exhibition was via Flinders Lane so I took a shortcut through an alley to get to the other side. It’s a nice office building with lots of space – enough to accommodate a peaceful cafe right opposite the gallery.

Lesley Kehoe Galleries hosted the exhibition and specializes in selling art with a focus on exhibiting Japanese works. It’s an awesome space designed to be timeless with interiors reflecting Japanese aesthetic. It feels cinematic when you walk through a short hallway and not too long after you’re presented with a spacious exhibition room.

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Thanks to the colorful corflute signage on the walkway,  I’m glad I knew about Tomokazu Matsuyama now than later. A New York based Japanese artist, he works in the comfort of his own space in Brooklyn where he has his own freedom to explore combining East and West imagery but is particularly influenced by his Japanese heritage. Some of his works reminded me of KAWS – only that it’s more detailed and geometric – the colours show up vibrantly.

Yayoi Kusama: Life is the Heart of a Rainbow

In my last post featuring a video of my trip, you’ll notice some of the footage was taken at the Yayoi Kusama exhibition at the National Gallery of Singapore.

I sign up to a lot of art and design news and thankfully one source told me some of Kusama’s pieces have landed in Singapore. Just like the KAWS exhibition, the trip was mildly planned around this given that we flew with Singapore Airlines, Mom suggested to stop by Singapore for a couple of days. We do love visiting Singapore every now and then especially since their airport is so accommodating and the city is usually our main stopover to Jakarta.

I first heard about Yayoi Kusama when I saw a Louis Vuitton shopfront a couple of years ago. She collaborated with LV and this is what it looked like (courtesy of Louis Vuitton and Yayoi Kusama): yellow-dots red-dots black-dotsgeorge-clooneyrei

Yep that’s George Clooney for the cover of W magazine and yep, that’s Yayoi in her trademark polka dot outfit. It is considered as one of the most successful art collaborations with a fashion house. The dots however aren’t seen as completely a playful pattern. Kusama says these dots are a representation of her childhood hallucinations where she constantly experienced reoccurring visions of repeating patterns during the events of World War II. Her work can be seen as a means of therapy for Kusama and even for viewers – a therapy of confronting a fear by representing it on a grand scale.

She spent lots of time hand painting polka dots or “infinite nets” as she refers them to in her life. They applied them onto canvasses, sculptures and then onto everything else that was a part of her life, even her body. Kusama’s family had their own plant nursery and she drew pumpkins and flowers with dots. She is literally the queen of polka dots.
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I’m a fan of polka dots (not to the extremities of Kusama) so I was eventually lured into Louis Vuitton that day. I was fascinated by their shop design and their new range of leather-goods. It was like walking into an art installation, learning more about who Yayoi Kusama was.

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The Yayoi cake in the cafeteria after the exhibition!

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My current read is “Yayoi Kusama: Inventing the Singular” by lecturer, Midori Yamamura. A great read if you want to dig deep into Kusama’s life events, many of which affected the art she’s created to date. 

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Design had evolved naturally, as a passion and a lifestyle beginning at an early age when I made trips back to the motherland, Indonesia, I experienced the surroundings and the lifestyle that was vastly different from what I was used to. I found myself passing by villages where children made their own toys with whatever was left around them; scrap metal, bits of cloth, banana leaves, and even cigarette butts. Despite this, the children were happy and proud with anything they created.

This image struck me and forever inspires me to contribute my skills to places that need it the most. Design helps me make decisions, while art helps me take risks. Both areas reward me with opportunities to create something impactful and everlasting!