Denim couldn’t stay away from the contemporary art inspiring artists like Anna Weber from Germany and Ian Berry from the UK.
Anna’s aim for her works was to mix art and fashion to create something new with sustainability at its core and underlying the idea of repurposing.
After a while, clothing begins to convey stories via its everyday use. Stories about ourselves, others, and their own physical traits. They’ll remember things and become one-of-a-kind as if it were a work of art.
That’s how she describes her work process: “The pictures are draped with whole garments on the floor, most commonly bottoms. I avoid destroying them, only to give respect to the clothes and to the work through other people. All pictures were taken with the mobile phone and then edited by photoshop. They only exist digitally.”
Many people mistake Ian Berry’s art for blue toned photos or indigo-colored oil paintings at first look. This is true not only when seen on the internet or in print, when much of the depth and detail is lost, but also when examined up close. Many viewers don’t realize they’re gazing at many layers and hues of denim jeans until they go close enough to touch them. With his imagination, he is creating a whole new universe. It’s just his paint, and what a material to utilize in our contemporary world, with all of its symbolism and dualities, as well as being such a ubiquitous article of clothing that links many people across the world.
When you look at them up close, you can see how each little piece of denim has been thought about and made out of jeans with washes and fades to help achieve that painterly tone. He paints despondent metropolitan landscapes, frequently reflecting the lonely or less glamorous aspect of city life.
He says “denim is now such an urban fabric, after having such rural origins. What better way to capture everyday urban life.”
That’s hard to think it all began with a single observation. Observing a stack of old pants and noting the different colours of blue. He quickly became one of the most talked about young artists after a few scissors and glue.
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