The timeless, romantic aesthetic of Ann Demeulemeester’s designs is translated into her series of beautiful white tables in collaboration with Belgian furniture house BULO. Rendered in white-washed painter’s canvas, the tables convey a sparse, clean sensibility – reminiscent of the Shaker movement of early 19th century colonial America.

“This table has the virginity of unpainted canvas. I wanted to return to the pure form of a table, like a child would draw it.” – Ann Demeulemeester.

Drawing on her well-established ties throughout the global cultural elite, Miuccia Prada’s latest project exhibits a delicate fusion of creative disciplines – creating a multifunctional space and cultural landmark that echoes the distinct evolutionary and revolutionary vision of ‘Prada’.

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As though beamed in from a nearby galaxy, the stark white form of the Prada Transformer sits awkwardly in the calm gardens of the Gyeonghui Palace in Seoul, South Korea.

Designed by fêted Dutch architect Rem Koolhaas, the Transformer is realised in the form of a 20m tall tetrahedronal exhibition building that flips on its four faces [a cross, a hexagon, a circle and a rectangle] to utilise its dynamic spatial potential.

Opening in late April, the Transformer has begun its six month tenure on it’s hexagonal face, as host to Prada’s travelling fashion exhibition ‘Waist Down – Skirts by Miuccia Prada’. The exhibition features a single skirt from each collection of Prada womenswear since its inception in 1988, displayed alongside a selection designed by Korean fashion students [inspired by the beauty of the Gyeonghui Palace]. The skirts each contribute a different aesthetic to the history of the garment, and its place in society as a cultural object of conformity, lust and feminine identity.

The following months will see the 180-tonne building flipped three times, the first to accommodate an international film festival of works chosen by Mexican director Alejandro González Iñárritu, displayed on the rectangular face of the structure from June 26th. Iñárritu, director of acclaimed cinematic works such as 21 Grams and Babel, has curated a holistic series of contemporary and vintage films to provide a broad landscape of powerful cinema.

The third event, shown on the ‘cross’ from August 16th, is an exhibition of artworks by Nathalie Djurberg, a Swedish artist whose work has been aligned with the Fondazione Prada in the past. Her exhibition ‘Turn Into Me’ consists of surrealist stop-motion film installations of clay figures, accompanied by an electronic soundtrack by Hans Berg.

The final flip – onto the circular face on September 30th – is yet to be announced, though Dan the Scout has more than an inkling that it will involve a catwalk presentation/recreation of Prada’ Spring Summer 2010 womenswear collection, due to its correspondence with the dates of the Milan Fashion Week schedule in which Prada shows seasonally. Only time will tell..

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With the Transformers’ close temporal proximity to the travelling juggernaut of the Chanel Mobile Art capsule [designed by Zaha Hadid], comparisons between the two projects are bound to be drawn. General exterior aesthetic and marketing similarities aside, Miuccia’s experiment shines as a beacon of contemporary artistic diversity, while Karl Lagerfeld’s project existed only to further propagate Chanel’s own brand value, hence the fatal flaw during this recession [the project was cancelled after visiting only three of the proposed six cities].

As a cross-cultural conceptual exhibition, the Prada Transformer provokes social discourse and celebrates positive international relationships through fashion, architecture, art, film and music.

www.prada-transformer.com
www.prada.com
www.oma.nl

Images courtesy of Prada.

Amidst an array of garish Balinese-inspired mixed media pieces, the “Albino Shark”  offered a minimalist and strongly conceptual breath of fresh air in Ashley Bickerton’s latest show at WhiteCube gallery.

A pearly white hammerhead shark floats from the ceiling trussed in a white sling – as though hospitalised and pacified for examination.

It is suspended as the focal point of an eerie tableaux that features floating coconuts and bags of ‘blood’.

The piece resonates a sterile and scientific macabre – exploring fragility, restraint and ‘man vs. beast’ through its subject matter; playing on the  balance of hard and soft, exoskeletons, and internal physiology, through use of natural and synthetic materials.

Showing until Friday 9th May, 2009. White Cube Hoxton Square, London.

coming soon.