WEEK TWO - LUCY AND BART + BART HESS

Leading on from last week, I wanted to investigate more unusual body coverings and whether they classified as fashion or art.

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\\LUCY AND BART//

About the Artists :

“Lucyandbart” is a collaboration between artists Lucy McRae and Bart Hess. In it they imagine human bodies and faces physically altered with a shocking but artistic realism. Globules of foam, asymmetric spines… fascinating and repugnant simultaneously, the pictures become even more disturbing because they don’t hint at the emotional state of the subject. Each transformed human looks blankly back at you, neither horrified or surprised or excited about their change of form, but merely present and allowing it to be shown to you."

Dripping Colour

This and 'evolution' below have a 'found object' and recycling appearance, using familiar objects to create new shapes and characters. The pair aren't just photographing models they're creating new people by posing and building out the bodies underneath. It feels like an illustration, photography and fashion are it's mediums but it can't be classed under either title. 

Evolution 

 Although typically clothing (you can see the tights seams and structure) you don't directly associate this with fashion. I think the photography/filming plays a big part in Lucy and Barts projection of an idea. I can see similarities between their creations and haute couture fashion on the catwalk but their main aim isn't to shape and cover the body.

Exploded View

Germination Day One

Germination Day Eight

Grow on You

One of my favourite ideals of their art is its' not permanent. I think that's the key differentiation between their artwork and fashion. Clothing stays marginally the same throughout its life, with particular materials wearing apart but staying recognisable. Although not all of their work is textile, it still provides a valid reasoning that body coverage doesn't have to be strictly clothing.

Is the work Fashion or Art?

Most definitely art. No traditional textile materials are used and the materials are sculpted onto the body. They seem constructed as an art piece with a specific outcome in mind, which relies on the bodies being posed and photographed. Particularly in 'exploded view'. The outfits could not be worn for extended amounts of time and are clearly never intended for use as clothing or fashion, even if toned down. What I plan to do in one of my own investigations is along a similar theme of applying abstract onto the body, but concentrating on how the outfit affects the body and senses. 

They work entirely from instinct and exploration with no preconceived idea of the end product. After reading up on what makes art, art, spontaneity is one of the main differences between a craft and fine art. Craft is meticulously planned, and in fashion sense - altered, arranged, redone and then toned down for multiple different versions. Art is a one off, an expression of an individual or group.

Below on their collaboration with a stylist, they've paired their artwork with textiles which provides a direct comparison between the two mediums. Although they compliment each other, they're wildly different. Being worn next to sharp uncomfortable objects, the trousers look much more comfortable than they would on an undecorated body. 

Like the china polo shirt by LI, Lucy and Bart have also worked with high end fashion brands to advertise and present their clothing...

AnOtherMan

"In a fusion of contemporary fashion and the human form, celebrated stylist Alister Mackie collaborates with avant-garde artists Lucy McRae and Bart Hess of LucyandBart to fashion sculptural, surreal extensions of the body – paired with animalistic outerwear from the A/W 2010 collections. The artistic duo LucyandBart are known for whimsical manipulations of the human body, and they love to use outlandish materials like foam and beds of grass. Though their elaborate pieces of art seem meticulously calculated, you’ll be surprised to find that the duo works entirely from instinct and exploration, with no preconceived concept of the end product. Normally, Lucy and Bart play the parts of both model and photographer interchangeably, but this time, Nick Knight will be behind the lens capturing the spectacle to grace the pages of the A/W 2010 issue of AnOther Man alongside fashions from Rick Owens, Comme des Garçons and Vivienne Westwood."

\\BART HESS//

Slime

Mutants

On his own, the work gets a little darker, more alien-like, especially with the hidden faces. With a material that isn't neat in the slightest, it simply can't be planned or touched up, Hess would have had to work directly and spontaneously onto the model. 

It changes my perception of the work knowing that most of Hess's solo work is commissioned, whereas the duo were being immediately creative with no direction. In that sense i think it's slightly less in the realm of fine art and he would be working more under an illustrators title.

This reminds me of Boo Ritsons album cover she did for the Maccabees, using her traditional style of slopped paint on portraits. 

SIMILAR ARTIST - MARCUS COATES

(1968 − ), Mayfly, Ephemeroptera (Subimago stage) Self Portait, flour and water, 2013, courtesy of British Council