Designers, Artists Team for Installations at MoMA PS1 Museum MOVE! Event

by Jennifer Paull (Subscribe to Jennifer Paull's posts)
Posted Nov 1st 2010 at 6:25PM

Cynthia Rowley Olaf Breuning paint-spattered clothes MoMA PS1

Cynthia Rowley partnered with artist Olaf Breuning and some willing visitors to create these paint-spattered clothes. Photo: Jennifer Paull for AOL

All sorts of fantastical creatures prowled the halls of New York City's MoMA PS1 museum on Halloween weekend. During the MOVE! event, clothing designers and cutting-edge artists created a hive of performances and installations.

Boldface fashion names like Marc Jacobs, Diane von Furstenberg, Proenza Schouler, Cynthia Rowley, Alexander Wang, and Rodarte teamed with up-and-coming artists including Dan Colen, Rashaad Newsome, and Olaf Breuning.

PS1's new director, Klaus Biesenbach, stirred the art/fashion pot, tapping Visionaire magazine editrix Cecilia Dean and style writer David Colman to co-curate the event.

Their goals were to forge new collaborations and pull the audience into the show. Dean and Colman paired up designers and artists, then held a series of brainstorming meetings in the museum space.

Many of the creative minds compared the process to blind dating or speed dating -- with happy results.

"It makes it a little more exciting to collaborate with someone you don't know. It's like an art blind date!" exclaimed Rowley.

Her partner, Breuning, complimented her and confessed to StyleList, "I'm not usually a big collaborator guy. I like to do art because it's a personal thing and I enjoy doing it myself. But since we worked very nicely together, why not [work with her again]?"

Menswear maestro Robert Geller teamed with performance artist Ryan McNamara on public dance lessons, for which Geller designed the clothes. Grinning with excitement, Geller told StyleList, "We had a very quick bond."

He then went on "speed dates" with dancers to prepare the costumes, ending up with oversize shorts and pants to accommodate shimmying and stretching.

The experience might shape a future collection. "That kind of exaggeration is very powerful.... It broke some barriers," he cheered.

Several other partnerships involved dance and movement, too.

Downtown favorite Wang outfitted the performers for Newsome's "Shade Compositions" performance. Brody Condon's slow-mo dancers wore long white tunics by Rodarte. (Surely Rodarte's costumes for the upcoming "Black Swan" film will be more interesting.)

Many museum goers were transformed with a stop at the Cheryl installation. Partnered with American Apparel, the art collective gave visitors "identity reassignments" with super-teased wigs, costumes, and elaborate makeup.

With the heady mix of Cheryl-ed fans, performers, and the I-woke-up-chic crowd, everyone seemed to be an artist for a day.

"Usually in institutions, there's always a distance between the viewers and what they're looking at," Dean explained to StyleList. "For us, it was really important that the viewer becomes part and parcel of the installation."

"I love the performers just walking around. You don't really know who's part of it as a visitor or a performer," she said, pointing to some costumed people on a bench. "It's this whole blurring, moving installation."

Visitors became true collaborators with the Rowley and Breuning experiment, one of the most popular projects.

Volunteers climbed into a Rowley outfit, then stood in a wooden container while Breuning poured a gallon of Valspar paint all over them. Crimson, gold, silver, white, bright blue, carnation pink -- literally an explosion of color.

Guests transformed themselves in the Cheryl + American Apparel room. Photo: Jennifer Paull for AOL

Photographers snapped action shots, with the paint dramatically splashing. The dripping clothes were then hung to dry and are now on sale at Rowley's Web site. (The paint-drenched participants got a shower.)

During a test run, Rowley decided to make the outfits from denim. "We didn't want to have the rainbow wet T-shirt contest!" she laughed.

The always game designer planned to take her turn under the bucket on Halloween.

One of the volunteers, Colleen Brogan, echoed the curators' goal before getting doused. "As a spectator, I had an opportunity to actually be part of the art so I jumped at the chance," she said.

After her "Carrie"-esque moment, she seemed a bit stunned. "It was smelly, wet, sticky... but I kept thinking as I stood there, 'What's the art in this?... Is it about the people who aren't used to experiencing art this way?'"

"Most of the time when you're in an art gallery, you don't see the process of the art being made," she mused. "There's a distance; you're not supposed to be touching or manipulating it. But that's what this is all about and I just had to be a part of it."

For news on another creative endeavor, read about AOL and the Whitney Museum's celebration of the arts.

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