A harness for the head... for a child? Too wrong.


image found here. 

A head harness? I suspect it may be more a diadem, or decoration of sorts... And not really meant to keep anything in place, not even hair.

And then, some images that are wildly inappropriate alongside the child princess of the Neverending Story:

(Abbey Lee Kershaw by Hedi Slimane, images found here.)








 To be completely honest, these high-end harnesses used in fashion are beginning to bore me the more I see them in collections and runways. They are exciting for a while - but everyone uses them in pretty much the same way, and it ends up being "just" an accessory, and something that will go out of style the very next season. I suppose that is part of fashion, but as for these images above... They are really tame. If the idea of an harness is simply that of "well, this outfit is boring. How about throwing a leather harness on top of it?," something is lost. Not sure what it is yet, but I think I'll be moving away from these large fashion houses and onto something more historical. Back to Japanese bondage I guess! Araki Nobuyoshi, here I come!


Instead of containing, being contained

Leonor Antunes: not sure what to think of her art, although the concept is very interesting. Apparently, she has measure a lot of important architectural sites in for example Brazil, and then applied them to these leather "harnesses," if I understand correctly...


Image found here.

Somehow, though, it seems kind of tame. I realize that these are supposed to be hanged, not applied to anything, and that that's important for the meaning of the work, but they seem so dead, in a sense. Perhaps it is the connotation they get for me - namely that of body harnesses - and then they seem to defy their purpose in a sense. For example, reading about Japanese bondage, it is such an interesting history back to martial arts involving binding people, and to the Japanese sensibility (I feel like a culture-butcherer, and although the Japanese of all people must be used to it (because "everyone" is somehow obsessed with Japan... myself included), it still feels... slightly wrong) of containing things, for example food or making clothes by folding, not buttons or pins and those sorts of tools. Makes me thing of a Chinese temple I saw in Hong Kong, cannot remember the name, which is made up of wood, entirely. There are no pins nor nails nor screws or anything, just wooden joints and pegs keeping it together. This is beautiful to me - the material is somehow more honest, although you would not be able to see the screws anyway... I will probably diverge into clothes and folding and fabric later on (especially due to a VERY exciting discovery I made today!), but I think that should be fine. Personally I think anything is relevant to the subject matter - after all, is that not part of art? Seeing our thoughts progress, but we can see it, because we notice it in the development of whatever we are making - be it books, clothes, sculptures, or anything else, writing, performance...

And now, back to so-called "real" work... But first, one image (or, two):


Found here.

I don't even know what to say yet. I am getting to be obsessed with the Corporation that made it, Nuno Corporation. Will come back to this later on.

Admit the effect I have on you (with pleasure, Zana Bayne leather harness photograph)



Found here.

This photograph. There is something about black and white photographs of naked skin -- its textures, the skeleton protruding slightly from underneath, it stretches over -- that is gorgeous, and I am not as strict with my criterions as long as you have a nude and a black and white camera. Quality? Pfft. This, however, is quality, and the skin stretching across the back in contrast and collection with the leather harness stretching across the back, both mimicking and opposing the natural structure of the body. Ahh, this is an incredible way to show an harness. It also makes me think of this:






From top: screenshot from The Dreamers, Edward Weston's Boulder Dam, Edward Weston's Shell, Edward Weston's Nude, and photograph by Tim Walker for W Magazine's editorial Dame of Thrones.  

The latter image makes me think of one of the aspects of harnesses that I am not so acquainted with, namely that of masculinity, warriors, war, defense, fighting, and protection. Would like to learn more about that. Great editorial, will post more photographs from it later on.

More Zana Bayne leather? Yes, please.











From her Fall/Winter 2012 Collection, featuring Sonoya. Images found here.

I especially like the second image. The hand coming out is very... Hmm, don't know how to describe it. In contrast with the fourth, and last image, it's interesting. Also, the way it makes me think about skeletal structures, of the spine (especially in the first image, except the spine is protruding in front of the chest, not supporting it from the back), is very new. I didn't even notice that the last image is that of a skull until I wrote this.