Aware: Art Fashion Identity Or the Construction of the Self Through Clothing

"Aware: Art Fashion Identity" Or the Construction of the Self Through Clothing

Grayson Perry, 'Artist's Robe' (2004), Courtesy of the Artist and Victoria Miro Gallery.

By João Paulo NUNES

London Editor

[London], December 15, 2010 - The exhibition "Aware: Art Fashion Identity", currently on at the Royal Academy of Arts in London, sets out to depict how artists and designers examine clothing as a mechanism to construct and communicate individual and collective identities.

Despite some lukewarm reviews in a number of newspapers, mostly owing to somewhat set expectations of what themes fashion exhibitions should focus on, this is an outstanding and thought-provoking collection of pieces by talented artists and designers that addresses the conceptual roles that fashion can have. The exhibition contains work by 30 emerging as well as established international contemporary practitioners including Hussein Chalayan, Andreas Gursky, Susie MacMurray, Alexander McQueen, Yoko Ono, Grayson Perry, Cindy Sherman, Yinka Shonibare and Yohji Yamamoto.

Occupying the main galleries of the Royal Academy's Burlington Gardens building, "Aware" is divided into four clearly demarcated sections. The circular and fluid layout of the galleries allows the visitor the possibility of revisiting the art works at different paces and developing personal interpretations of the rich layers of meaning that they produce regarding the role of fashion in the construction of identity...read the full article