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Latest items? Unedited? Fringe Report Uncut
Exhibition - Fashion At Belsay
Verdict: Fashion as theatre
Belsay Castle, Northumberland - 29 May - Oct 04
13 of Britain's top fashion designers create installation art rather than garments at one of English Heritage's most stunning venues in Northumberland (writes Peter Andrews).
The exhibition features work from Alexander McQueen, Hamish Morrow, Stella McCartney, Julie Verhoeven, Clements Ribeiro, Zandra Rhodes, Paul Smith, Eley Kishimoto and 6a Architects, Jean Muir, Georgina Goodman, Shelley Fox, Agent Provocateur, and Vien Le Wood.
Jean Muir once said, 'Fashion is not art: it is industry'. At Belsay Hall - till the end of September 04 - fashion is art becoming theatre.
The rooms of the Greek-Revival-style Hall, the 14th Century Castle and the gardens are the setting. The pieces range from the reflected light of Stella McCartney’s stunning crystal horse, to the darkness of Agent Provocateur’s sexually-charged bedrooms - which revisit the Bluebeard legend.
Elsewhere are surprising, jokey plastic flowers, a video that floats in Zero G and two rooms built from the bed-linen and staff-uniforms of the great house - with hidden servants discussing their place in the order of things.
The Library - calm, complete with soft seating, not-quite-real bushes and Radio 4 - lies between an extravagance of a dining-experience decorated by Zandra Rhodes, and a 'street' of spaces - which seem to be different but are all variations on the same theme.
Georgina Goodman’s shoe sculpture, in the Butler's Pantry, is derived from her own DNA.
Outside in the Stable Yard, there's an outcrop of rock formed by the action of wind and waves. This is Tallulah – Running Water Dress - its bejewelled surface slowly eroding.
Fashion At Belsay is the venue's fourth major arts and design exhibition in recent years. It demonstrates that creativity will never be predictable, and that fashion can become art - and a kind of theatre.
Getting There: Belsay Hall is 14 miles West of Newcastle upon Tyne off the A696. It is managed by English Heritage. 'Fashion at Belsay' continues until the end of September.
Designer Credits (alpha order): Agent Provocateur, Shelley Fox, Georgina Goodman, Eley Kishimoto/6a Architects, Stella McCartney, Alexander McQueen, Hamish Morrow, Jean Muir,
Zandra Rhodes, Clements Ribeiro, Paul Smith, Julie Verhoeven, Vien Le Wood.
Exhibition Credits: Curators: Judith King, Susan Postlethwaite. Venue: Belsay Hall - English Heritage.
END
(c) Peter Andrews - 1 August 2004
For fashion as art installation see Elizabeth Emanuel - Evolution
Fringe Report (c) Fringe Report 2002-2012
www.fringereport.com
