La nota ...

Purist > find value and meaning based on underlying premise 

Tourist > Curiosity & ambition pacify the need to see or know 

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Dear Virgil, It’s a good thing I’m good at taking a. deeper look because what your show is, is good for everyone the tourist and the purist. On the surface it’s “cool” irony is entertaining. Below, there is craftsmanship, collaboration. Well thought out and executed ideas made into digestible bits of hype. Your Caravaggio print: when I saw the screens around the corner, I was blown. This is for a number of reasons. 1st of all, the reproduction of a Caravaggio painting is crazy in its original medium. Then you chose silkscreen – a medium controversial if it is fine art: one that punks, streetwear kids use to splatter messages on: anything with tees, computer paper, zines, hats. one that takes an image and completely flattens it. And you take this medium to dissect a renaissance painting and recreate it – ON A TEE SHIRT. (~$4??) This is the definition of appealing to the tourist & the purist. The tourist comes up with the desire, driven by curiosity, to dissects a painting in a familiar (with streetwear) medium. The purist loves the concept of taking a masterpiece and recreating it in a way which speaks to mass production on a mass-produced item then creates limited quantities. At this point, you have me in a thought vortex, and I’m not even ¼ of my way through the exhibit. I will be honest, at some points in the exhibit, I lost the red (or orange) thread. If I think about it more, I think about iterations – the need to try and fail. Not that you failed, you were brave in trying new mediums – stretching your understanding of what is possible with a medium or concept. Your creativity is nurtured in a self-aware place. A place where the why matters. And I’m over here making assumptions based on my own experiences. But am I right? Can we talk about this new language of fashion? I need to know more. Can you tell me? Well since you won’t answer, I will write it. You bring together deconstruction, irony, community, and environment into your work. Your new language not only questions the fashion which came before, but the entire culture of then and now. Fashion isn’t just clothes and you know it. You deconstruct the garment literally through exposing elements of the making process. And you deconstruct the perception of what is appropriate for that garment -> how it is worn, where, by who, through this and text and “branding”. you establish irony. And humor. & Community because street wear is known for its tight & exclusive community. You create this while newly at LV incorporating inclusivity into the exclusivity. Environment is simultaneously how it is positioned and where it is appropriate, with of course the idea of “appropriate” being challenged. I’m out of space. And outer space. Thank you. TRM.