NATURAL HISTORY MUSEUM: Fashion will meet fossils, skeletons and otherworldly artworks come Nov. 29 when the Musée des Arts Décoratifs in Paris opens an exhibition devoted to Dutch couturier Iris van Herpen.
Titled “Iris van Herpen: Sculpting the Senses,” the retrospective will feature about 100 haute couture creations alongside items usually found in natural history museums, or contemporary art galleries. It is scheduled to run through April 28.
Works by artists including Rogan Brownart, Wim Delvoye, Tim Walker, Matthew Harrison, Damien Jalet, Kohei Nawa and Casey Curran are to go on display, along with design pieces by Neri Oxman, Ren Ri, Ferruccio Laviani and Tomáš Libertíny.
Wim Delvoye — Nautilus, 2017.
Courtesy of Arts Decoratifs/© Adagp, Paris
The exhibition is to unfurl around nine themes to express “the essence of her work, merging fashion, contemporary art, design and science,” according to the museum, which this week revealed fresh details and imagery about the upcoming show. Themes including water and the origins of life, skeletons, nature, the body and mythology.
Billed as an immersive journey engaging all the senses, the display is soundtracked by an original composition by artist Salvador Breed, and concludes with rooms dedicated to her atelier, videos of her runway shows and projections of her dresses akin to aurora borealis dancing across the sky.
Known for creations that use technologies from laser cutting and 3D printing to electromagnetic weaving, van Herpen has been the subject of solo shows at leading institutions including the Groninger Museum in the Netherlands in 2012, the Textile Museum of Sweden in 2014, the High Museum of Art in Atlanta in 2015 and the Royal Ontario Museum in Toronto in 2018.
Carla van de Puttelaar for Iris van Herpen.
Courtesy of Arts Decoratifs/Iris van Herpen Private Collection