Soundsuits by Nick Cave

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No, not the Australian singer. Soundsuits are wearable artworks by an American artist, dancer and fashion designer. Bigger pictures here while the Jack Shainman gallery has details of a recent exhibition.

Metal armatures adorned with a range of objects including painted ceramic birds, flowers, brass ornaments, and strands of beads, top the figures and serve as headdresses that activate the sculpture and provide a visual and textural contrast to the soft bodysuit. Soundsuits, named for the sounds made when the sculptures are worn, are as reminiscent of African and religious ceremonial costumes as they are of haute couture. A multitude of references bring to mind not only disparate cultural traditions but they also highlight Cave’s diverse background and artistic training. Cave studied and danced with Alvin Ailey and created his own clothing line which he featured in a shop he opened and ran for ten years. He is as interested in fashion and cultural, ritualistic and ceremonial concepts as he is in politics, a domain that has always been part of his work as demonstrated by acts of collecting and reconfiguring elements and concealing the identity, race, and gender, of those who wear his suits.

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Fred Tomaselli at White Cube

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left: Summer Swell (2007); right: Big Raven (2008).

I like Fred Tomaselli’s hyper-detailed psychotropic paintings a great deal. Londoners can see an exhibition of new work at the Mason’s Yard branch of White Cube until 16 May, 2009.

Tomaselli’s new work is a departure from his earlier, more direct use of pills, hemp leaves or ornithological references. The birds are painted with greater freedom, with each flame-like brushstroke animating the feathers as if an aura were radiating from the wild creature. Big Raven is inspired by the American Gothic tradition and the poetry of Edgar Allan Poe, while Detail, with its dramatisation of the relationship between predator and prey, is a timely homage to Darwin’s Origin of the Species. The single, hypnotic gaze of Eye celebrates Tomaselli’s understanding of visual reciprocity – as if the bird were returning the artist’s affectionate stare. This reoccurs in the galaxies of multiple eyes found in his photograms, or monstrous apparitions created in direct response to front-page articles from the New York Times, through to the talismanic eye that emerges from the sea in Summer Swell, as if it were drowning in its own visual abundance.

Previously on { feuilleton }
• The art of Fred Tomaselli

Torero

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You don’t have to agree with bullfighting to appreciate Torero, Ruven Afanador‘s photo series which brings to the surface the usually latent but always present homoerotics of the sport. These were part of a book collection in 2001 which seems now to be out of print.

With Torero, Ruven Afanador lays open a world of poignant beauty and sensuality – not the atmosphere of the bullfight, but the intimate world of proud young matadors in all their manly valor, and youthful dreams intact. This exquisitely produced volume of Afanador’s black-and-white portraits, taken over a period of two years comprise the most substantial collection of torero images ever published. In Mexico, Peru, Spain and his native Columbia, Afanador opens the door to the famously closed society of bullfighters, offering his elegant, private view of the boys and young men raised in a centuries-old Latin tradition, capturing their balletic beauty, and their distinctly, undeniably erotic aura. Through these iconic portraits, Afanador also gorgeously documents the sumptuous and richly-crafted couture-like costumes and the timeless symbols of the torero culture.

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