Grafik Apparel: Interweaving Art and Fashion

londonprintstudio’s forthcoming exhibition Grafik Apparel examines the interlocking strategies of artists and designers who stretch and invisibly mend the codes and clothes we ‘wear’.
Clothes entwine references, ironies and identities. Historically garments express a collective state of mind, status, allegiance, profession – and individual dreams. 70’s punk expressed disillusionment with authority. In the 1920’s and 1930’s, couturier Schiaparelli worked with leading artists and designed clothes that referenced surrealism, while artist Baroness Elsa von Freytag-Loringhovenchallenged respectable society as ‘the only one living anywhere who dresses Dada, loves Dada, lives Dada’.
From the 1980’s, many fashion designers have wanted to be recognised as artists, producing ‘conceptual clothes’. Using strategiesassociated with contemporary art they have created clothes that are sometimes better suited to exhibitions than for everyday wear.
However, artists have often designed clothes - from Klimt to Matisse, Salvador Dalí, Aleksandr Rodchenko, and Oscar Schlemmer. Sonia Delaunay and Natalia Goncharova were particularly interested in clothes and textile design, producing many designs for popular consumption. Grafik Apparel will channel the spirit of the Baroness, through artists who blur the lines between fashion and art, into a memorable exhibition.
In conjunction with the exhibition, the Countess Alex Zapak will be performing a unique “Fairy-Tale Punk” concert on
Friday 16th December at 10pm.

This exhibition will explore the creative tension between the separate worlds of art and fashion, and includes the following artists:
Philip Colbert, Godfried Donkor, Janieta Eyre, Dana Haim, Andrew Ibi, Pia Interlandi, Sabina Keric & Yvonne Bayer, Naiza Khan, Anders Krisar, Kirstie Macleod, Ruth Marten, Rhian Solomon, Jo Spence, Stella Whalley, Kimiko Yoshida, The Countess Alex Zapak londonprintstudio exhibitions explore ideas and boundaries between art, popular culture and social engagement. londonprintstudio works creatively with a range of artists and curators in producing its exhibitions. This show is jointly curated by John Phillips and Zhivka Haskiya. Sian Weston is a special adviser.
John Phillips is an artist, designer, curator and writer whose work addresses contemporary social issues. In 1974 he was a co-founder of Paddington Printshop, which subsequently became londonprintstudio of which he is currently the Director. John frequently works collaboratively.
Recent exhibitions include: Groove Grove Graphics (2010 with Jane Goodsir), Taking Issue (2010), Memoirs From a Cold Utopia (2011 with Eve Kask).
Zhivka (Jiji) Haskiya is 25 year old photographer and stylist; explorer and idealist. Since graduating in Fashion Photography from the London College of Fashion, she has been investigating the borders where fashion and art congregate. She is fascinated by the personal relationship between the garment and the wearer; and the individual speech created when attire is layered on the body. Jiji has already exhibited her work professionally, and now is excited about gathering other artists’ adventures for the exhibition.

Sian Weston is an independent curator, researcher and writer with an interest in political textiles. Her background is within printed and embroidered textiles, and she is currently undertaking a PhD in fashion and globalisation.

“He kissed her on the cheek and said, ‘What’s that on your face?’
She was wearing a British postage stamp as a beauty mark. One day, watching the postman fill the boxes, she’d realized that the stamp was the perfect signal for movement- it sailed paper from one place to
another with beautiful precision. And it was more original than a mole.
‘Queen Elizabeth,’ she said.”