Romantic Primitivism
"What I do is look at ancient African tribes and the way they dress. There's a lot of tribalism in the collections."
Throughout his career, Alexander McQueen frequently returned to the theme of primitivism, which drew upon the fantasy of the noble savage living in harmony with the natural world. Eshu (Autumn/Winter 2000) was inspired by one of the most well-known deities of Yoruba mythology. Using materials such as hair beads, latex and mud, McQueen imbued the garments with fetishistic qualities. It's a Jungle Out There (Autumn/Winter 1997) was based on the theme of the Thomson's Gazelle. The collection was a meditation on the dynamics of power, in particular the dialectical relationship between predator and prey.McQueen's reflections on primitivism were frequently represented in paradoxal combinations, contrasting modern and primitive, civilized and uncivilized. The story line of Irene (Spring/Summer 2003) involved a shipwreck at sea and was peopled with pirates, conquistadors and Amazonian Indians. Typically, McQueen's narrative glorified the state of nature and tipped the moral balance in favour of the 'natural man' or 'natures gentleman', unfetted by the artificial constructs of civilisation.
Plato's Atlantis
"Plato's Atlantis predicted a future in which the ice cap would melt, the waters would rise, and life on earth would have to evolve in order to live beneath the sea once more or perish. Humanity would go back to the place from where it came."
Nature's influence on McQueen's work is most clearly reflected in Plato's Atlantis (Spring/Summer 2010), the last fully released collection the designer showed before his death in February 2010. Inspired by Charles Darwin's On the Origin of Species (1859), it presented a narrative that centered not on the evolution of humankind but on it's devolution.
McQueen created complex, digitally engineered prints inspired by sea creatures and introduced the towering 'Armadillo' boots. A film featuring model Raquel Zimmermann appearing to mutate into a semi-aquatic creature formed a graphic backdrop.
For the Romantics, nature - starry skies, stormy seas, turbulent waterfalls, vertiginous mountains - was the primary vehicle for the Sublime. In Plato's Atlantic, this sublime experience of nature was paralleled with and supplanted by that of technology, and the extreme space - time compressions produced by the digital age.
The collection was streamed live over the internet on Nick Knight's SHOWstudio in an attempt to make fashion into an interactive dialogue between the creator and consumer. With it's mixture of technology, craft and showmanship, Plato's Atlantis offered a patent vision of the future of fashion. It was considered to be Alexander McQueen;s greatest achievement.
A Gothic Mind
One of the defining features of Alexander McQueen's collections was their historicism (this really links into my own topic as I want to focus on the evolutionary perspective and animal- human relationships in art and life.) While McQueen's historical references were far-reaching, he was particularly inspired by the nineteenth century, drawing especially on the Victorian Gothic. 'There's something kind of Edgar Allan Poe,' he once observed, kind of deep and kind of melancholic about my collections.'
Like the Victorian Gothic, which combines elements of horror and romance, McQueen's collections often reflected paradoxical relationships such as life death, lightness and darkness, melancholy and beauty. I really want to focus on these paradoxes in my work focussing on the reality and truth of human beings as animalistic acting as both prey and predator - not some superior civilised being seperated from the natural order. I feel like especially with technology, internet, video games etc we as a species are really disconnected to the reality of the earth and relationships with nature and animals. I think cutting out the meaningless rubbish and finding the core evolutionary reasons and responses to situations/issues etc will be a really interesting and refreshing drive for my illustrations.
We seperate ourselves from animals, and from the natural world. Pretending we are exempt. We are shocked, particularly in the western world, when murders, disability, death, illness and corruption invade our lives. However it is natural. It is normal. Preditor vs prey. It may not be fair but it is how it has always been. Tribes vs tribes, wary of each other but welcoming if there is a benefit to ourselves. And this is to ensure our survival. Evolution has created us. Natural selection and survival of the fittest. My disertation topic will focus on our relationship with animals and particularly animals through the human eye; they are depicted in art in relation to ourselves as humans; symbolising motifs, feelings, wealth, deceit, death etc even humans themselves for example in satirical editorial illustrations.
Empowering women through the portrayl of them as predators rather than prey in his work by using 'weapons' in the animal kingdom that you should be fearful of through evolutionary instinct such as horns, snakeskin, bird feathers/wings -birds of prey. Animalistic/ or a powerful and successful hunter (survival of the fittest- top of the food chain).
Romantic Nationalism
McQueen's collections were fashioned around elaborate narratives that were profoundly autobiographical, often reflecting upon his ancestral history, specifically his Scottish heritage. I really want to focus on our evolutionary heritage in my work in a respectful way that reflects how the reasons and themes that motivated our behaviour then are still relevant today.
When he was once asked what his Scottish roots meant to him, the designer responded, 'everything.' McQueen's national pride is most evident in The Widows of Culloden (Autumn/Winter 2006) which was based on the final battle of the Jacobite Risings in 1745. A grand collection, it presented a catharsis to the anti-romanticism of his earlier, Highland Rape collection of 1995. McQueen's message, however, remained defiantly political: 'What the British did there was nothing short of genocide.'
Despite these heartfelt declarations of his Scottish national identity, McQueen also had a deep interest in the history of England. This was most apparent, perhaps, in The Girl Who Lived in the Tree (Autumn/Winter 2008), inspired by an elm tree in the garden of McQueen's country home in East Sussex. Influenced by the British Empire, it was one of McQueen's most romantically nationalistic collections, albeit heavily tinged with irony and pastiche.
This goes back to the evolutionary perspective - our pride in our tribe, the survival of our tribe and the protection of the traditions of the tribe that have allowed us to prosper and work together this far.
Victim and Aggressor
'I find beauty in the grotesque, like most artists. I have to force people to look at things.' - Alexander McQueen.
The emotional intensity of McQueen's catwalk presentations was frequently the consequence of the interplay between dialectical oppositions. The relationship between victim and aggressor was especially apparent,particularly in the accessories. He once remarked, 'I like the accessory for its sadomasochistic aspect.'
I like the idea that the accessory, typically thought of as girly and frivalous in our western society, is dissected by McQueen as sadomasochistic and you can see this in his collections. It links to my dissertation topic as originally completely natural materials would have been used to create accessories such as horns, animal bone, animal blood, animal teeth, animal feet (rabbits foot for goodluck) animal feathers, skin and fur.
The exhibition's Cabinet of Curiosities, focuses on atavistic and fetishistic paraphernalia produced by McQueen in collaboration with a number of accessory designers, including the milliner Philip Treacy and the jeweler Shaun Leane. The Cabinet also includes show pieces, one-off creations made for the catwalk but not intended for production.
Romantic Exoticism
McQueen is interested in all cultures not just his own. It seems his focus is on the human condition and this really ties in to my dissertation topic- humans are all linked/the same/animals. The motives for our behavior can be stripped down to key elements based on evolutionary perspective for gene survival.
Alexander McQueen's romantic sensibilities expanded his imaginary horizons not only temporally but also spatially. As it had been for artists and writers of the Romantic Movement, the lure of the exotic was a central theme in McQueen's collections. His exoticism was wide-ranging. Africa, China, India and Turkey were all places that sparked his imagination. Japan was particularly significant, both thematically and stylistically. The kimono, especially, was a garment that the designer endlessly reconfigured in his collections.
But as with many of his themes, McQueen's exoticism often expressed itself in contrasting opposites. This was the case with It's Only a Game (Spring/Summer 2005), a show staged as a chess game inspired by a scene in the film Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone (2001), which pitched the East (Japan) against the West (America).
This again links into tribe warfare etc and the evolutionary perspective approach to be wary of strangers. Also competing for resources, attractive mates and power.
Also linked to game theory- evolutionary ties to our innate competitiveness and want to be successful/win - because with winning comes power and resources and that means survival and your genes (childrens) survival. Make anything a game and you can get people to do anything or buy anything - used in sales etc.
Voss
'It was about trying to trap something that wasn't conventionally beautiful to show that beauty comes from within.' - Alexander McQueen.
VOSS (Spring/Summer 2001), also known as the 'Asylum' show, was staged inside a vast two-way mirrored box. The collection featured a number of exoticized garments, including a coat and a dress appliqued with roundels in the shape of chrysanthemums. (the power and intensity of the natural world compared to the frivality of our superficial possessions etc in society today.)
Typical of McQueen's collections, VOSS offered a commentary on the politics of appearance, upending conventional ideals of beauty. For McQueen, the body was a site for contravention, where normalcy was questioned, and where the spectacle of marginality was embraced and celebrated.
For example, dress of dyed ostrich feathers and hand-painted microscopic slides, Voss, Spring/Summer 2001. Model: Erin O'Connor. Image: REX.
Romantic Naturalism
'I have always loved the mechanics of nature and to a greater or lesser extent my work is always informed by that.' - Alexander McQueen.
Nature was the greatest, or at least the most enduring, influence upon Alexander McQueen. Many artists of the Romantic Movement presented nature itself as a work of art. McQueen both shared and promoted this view in his collections, which often included fashions that took their forms and raw materials from the natural world.
McQueen frequently played upon the transformative powers of clothing. In The Widows of Culloden (Autumn/Winter 2006) a dress created entirely from pheasant feathers imbued the wearer with an avian beauty, while a razor clam shell encrusted dress from VOSS (Spring/Summer 2001) formed a brittle carapace. Sarabande (Spring/Summer 2007) incorporated both silk and real flowers, which withered as they fell onto the catwalk.
For example, sketchbook page: Tulle and lace dress with veil and antlers, Widows of culloden, Autumn/Winter 2006-07. Model: Raquel Zimmermann at Viva London. Image: firstVIEW
My notes...
- Survival
- Life
- Hunt
- Sex
- Birth
- Hunterian museum
- Death - fear/sadness/respect/celebrating life/ spirits
- Illness - disease/virus/infection - limbs/scars/amputees/tattooed scars
- Decay
- Traditions - birth/marriage/death... masks/dances/costumes
- Juxtapositions - the world ... the breathtakingly beautiful vs the shockingly gruesome and sinister.
- A power - a real feeling - gets the audience- every human/animals primal instincts and passions.
- Alexander McQueen Savage Beauty book.
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