January 2024 News Roundup
1.
The issues surrounding AI and art just keep coming. This month, someone with the user handle @DonnelVillager decided it was a great idea to finish Keith Haring’s last work, “Unfinished Painting” (1989), which was intentionally left uncompleted as a commentary on the AIDS crisis. Why anyone thought this was a good idea is incomprehensible, other than it just being great social media bait. This story in Hyperallergic discusses the ensuing backlash and why artists continue to be concerned about AI models being trained on their work.
2.
The New Year’s Day or Noto earthquake in Western Japan was devastating both for the region’s infrastructure as well as its traditional artisan crafts. Best known for its extensive lacquerware community, the earthquake and its many aftershocks have caused the area’s artisans to lose their studios and workshops along with their livelihoods. Find out more about the artisans, their work, and how they hope to revitalize the lacquerware industry post-earthquake here.
3.
One of the many reasons I adore the films of Martin Scorsese is because he immerses his audience in an environment. The worlds he constructs for his actors to tell their story within are always extraordinarily detailed and thoroughly thought through. His latest Oscar-nominated movie is Killers of the Flower Moon, which tells the story of a series of murders of oil-rich Osage Native Americans in 1920s Oklahoma. The costuming, including the traditional Osage ribbon work, was critical to bringing this world alive. This story discusses how costumer Jacqueline West worked with costume consultant and Osage woman Julie O’Keefe and a community of traditional craftspeople.
Balenciaga Museoa (Kippelboy)
4.
The renowned art and design university Savanah College of Art and Design (SCAD) has just opened its first exhibit of the year, Cristóbal Balenciaga: Master of Tailoring. The show focuses on the process of haute couture from the perspectives of both the couturier and client. Curated by Gaël Mamine, head of collections of Fondation Azzedine Alaïa, in collaboration with Gaspard de Massé, head of archives at Balenciaga, and Gonzalo Parodi, director of Parodi Costume Collection, and organized by Rafael Gomes, creative director of SCAD FASH museums, the show includes rarely seen archival pieces from the 1940s to the late 1960s, when Balenciaga officially closed his house.
5.
John Galliano’s “walk through the underbelly of Paris” show for Maison Margiela during the Spring 2024 haute couture collections went viral instantly. Many observer’s - both online and off - felt the show delivered a real moment of “visceral” fashion, as Tara Gonzalez writes for Harper’s Bazaar. Galliano is undeniably an incredible talent, who is always looking to take his atelier’s technical skills to the next level. However, as much as the show looked like it was a real fashion spectacle and contained some incredible clothing, it felt a bit too much like going back in time to Galliano’s early ‘aughts Dior. While Galliano is a master of skill and silhouette, his collections can tend toward costume; Margiela, on the other hand, was a groundbreaking designer, who deconstructed clothing and reconstructed entirely new silhouettes for modern life. Maybe I’m too much of a pragmatist, but I think designers should be continuing to evolve the idea of a woman’s wardrobe, rather than creating collections so that women look like a character out of an historical novel. Please feel free to chime in below and let me know your thoughts.
Photo of Keith Haring “We Are The Youth” (Rgs25)
