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.