Collaborating with Fashion Designer Kaelen Farncombe, and Producer Dan Otero of Launch Collective, we were commissioned to create a strikingly bold environment for the Spring 2011 Presentation that echoed impulses of sun flares, driving rain and hazy translucency. It was critical to design elements that amplified the innate materiality of the venue - raw concrete floor, exposed brick walls and white concrete pillars.
We designed five towering panes of glass - oddly skewed steel frames skinned with acrylic sheeting - that were violently splattered with large lacquer water drops. The obtuse distended walls leaned against the venue architecture to create layers in the space as models walked behind them, and vibrant contrasts in surface qualities as light passed over the materials. Models posed both in front of and behind the walls, as well on four mirror topped platforms in the foreground. Bare light bulbs behind the walls lent highlighting flares to the composition. The reflectivity of the water droplets and mirrors, alongside the foggy acrylic sheeting framed boldly in white steel, contrasted starkly to the warm brick wall upstage. And ultimately, the still-posed models appeared to be dancing on sheets of water in the hazy sunshine following a torrential summer hurricane.
Weather. Hurricane chasing. Water on glass.
