Knitting Together An Image of Fashion

The 2011 Taut programme is entitled ‘Knitting Together An Image of Fashion’. The programme will approach two main thematic areas and, where appropriate, their conceptual intersections, as befits the topic.

Knitting
Knitting in fashion is the topic of a major exhibition opening at Antwerp’s renowned fashion museum (MoMu) in March 2011. During the exhibition, the city will also play host to a complementary art programme that considers the idea of knitting in visual arts.

Taut 2011 will programme a number of events and projects that specifically examine the idea of knitting at the intersection of art and fashion, some of which will relate to the other key theme of the programme.

A Moving Image of Fashion
The advances in photography and film technologies throughout the twentieth century had massive implications for art and fashion. Sometimes these implications were shared. At others times, the consequences of the advent of photography and the moving image affected the two disciplines entirely differently.

The cultural politics and social paradigms resulting from the ways in which the two disciplines have responded to the advent of the easily replicated or moving image has often been implicitly caught up in the ongoing discussions about the boundaries or similarities between the two disciplines. For example, the notions of ‘uniqueness’, ‘authorship’ or ‘exclusivity’ that are a part of the complex social values relating to each respective discipline operate within different parameters. Naturally, the response of each discipline, even during the seminal stages of photography and cinema’s development, was different; fashion’s early interest in using the new technologies for early forms of media promotion, art’s skepticism or anxiety about its implications for the traditional role of the artist etc.

Bearing all of this in mind, it is perhaps not too much of a generalisation to also note that within the traditional disciplines of fashion and art, general tendencies – or orthodoxies even- have emerged relating to photography or the moving image. And, one of the most fascinating -and most neglected- areas for consideration is the comparative position of such orthodoxies both as a state-of-the-art review of each practice as it currently exists and, indeed, in reflecting upon their respective and shared histories. More precisely, considering fashion in relation to the moving image can raise such insights.

Over the course of the twentieth century, fashion rapidly established a close and co-dependent relationship with photography. Fashion photography, disseminated within fashion magazines, became the default setting by which fashion circulated its narratives and discourses, replacing illustration in print as the primary visual mode.

Furthermore, the printed magazine format remains the primary method by which fashion, especially at the top level of the fashion industry, communicates with its audiences. Despite the fluid ground on which an inevitable shift must occur in reaction to the developments in new media and telematic communication, there remains little clarity or consensus on what, exactly, the future holds for this format that rapidly consolidated itself during the twentieth century. If the economics of fashion magazine production – and its inherent relationship to static images of fashion- have become increasingly difficult and complicated in recent years, there is no sign yet of a comparable ‘industry wide’ model governing the awaited next generation of fashion media; economically, conceptually or artistically. Prototypes, stand-alone unique examples and notable exceptions, there certainly are. But any singular, encapsulating digital or dynamic media format relevant across the whole industry – such as the ‘glossy fashion magazine’ of print- has yet to arrive.

In order to offer a more focussed reflection on where fashion is now –and where it has come from- in relation to the moving image, Taut - Knitting Together An Image of Fashion, will present a manifestation that examines fashion and the moving image from a variety of directions. These will include a screening programme, exhibited works, special projects, discussions and talks.

The scrutiny will be as interested in considering the archival and historic connection between fashion and the moving image as much as some of the more recent creative uses of the moving image within fashion. Furthermore, as befits Taut, the curatorial approach will also highlight the connections between art, fashion and the moving image since both contemporary and historic examples only serve to highlight that fashion has repeatedly engaged with artists in the production of the moving image, whether as a form explicitly highlighting fashion as the primary topic, or, indeed, where a directional fashion practice is deeply embedded with moving image media made for some other primary purpose. And, of course, there are just as many lauded visual artists whose work connects ideas taken from fashion with the moving image.

The Taut - Fashion & Art programme curators are Laurent Dombrowicz and Ken Pratt, who jointly founded and programmed Taut in 2010. This was a natural follow on from their previous respective roles and collaborations as Fashion Director and Art Editor – and later as Joint Editors in Chief - of the lauded niche magazine Wound. From their respective fashion creative and art curatorial backgrounds, whilst at the creative helm of Wound, they created a thinking magazine in which the respective disciplines of fashion, art, architecture and design always developed a thematic discourse; each discipline operating with autonomy and credible in its own field.

Each continues to undertake a range of roles in the respective fields of fashion and art for a range of publishing manifestations - So Chic, Vogue Korea, Other Edition etc- and other work located in practice ranging from the practicality of consultancy to the more theoretical work of curatorial or reflective projects. In 2010, with the advent of Taut, they launched a bold statement that they hope will continue to examine the intersections between fashion and art well into the future.

For full details of the 2010 programme, please click here.

Collaborations and Cooperations: