Dutch fashion designer Iris van Herpen is an acknowledged visionary of the twenty‑first century. Her iconic designs draw inspiration from the depths of the ocean, the mysteries of the universe, the regenerative forms of nature, our bodies in movement and visions of humanity in a distant future. In her hands, fashion is being redefined, transcending the boundaries of prescribed femininity to become something more open, daring and transformative.
Watch | Iris van Herpen at the Brisbane opening
Iris van Herpen: Sculpting the Senses
29 Jun – 7 Oct
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‘Iris van Herpen: Sculpting the Senses’ at Brisbane’s Gallery of Modern Art (GOMA) until 7 October 2024 — a first for Australian audiences — features 130 garments and accessories from across the designer’s career, arranged according to nine themes to reveal how van Herpen combines traditional craftsmanship with innovative technologies to create a new language that synthesises ideas from fields as diverse as ancient mythology, marine biology and quantum physics.
DELVE DEEPER: Journey through ‘Iris van Herpen: Sculpting the Senses’
‘Sculpting the Senses’ brings van Herpen’s designs into conversation with contemporary artworks, natural history specimens and rare manuscripts to explore these myriad influences. An evocation of the designer’s atelier offers insights into the rich material experimentation that underpins the creation of each piece, illuminating how van Herpen focuses as much on the creative process as the finished garment.
Two of van Herpen’s most vital creative wellsprings are the natural world and the human body in motion, reflecting her early childhood passions for nature and classical dance. Organic, rhythmical silhouettes suggest the intricacies of a mollusc’s shell, or the vibrational energies at work within the world’s most powerful particle accelerator.
Iris van Herpen ‘Anemone’ dress 2012 worn by Björk
Iris van Herpen ‘Sensory Seas’ dress 2020 worn by Lady Gaga
Iris van Herpen ‘Escapism’ top & skirt 2011
Van Herpen’s restless curiosity has led her to collaborate with pioneering thinkers in the fields of architecture, dance, biology, physics and visual art. This transdisciplinary ethos also characterises her relationship with her ‘muses’ — groundbreaking figures, such as Beyonce, Björk (illustrated), Cate Blanchett, Lady Gaga (illustrated) and Tilda Swinton — for whom she creates her Haute Couture.
Van Herpen is widely credited with being the first fashion designer to create a garment using 3D-printing processes — the Escapism dress, (illustrated) named by Time magazine as one of the top 50 inventions of 2011. The same year she was invited to join the illustrious Paris Chambre Syndicale de la Haute Couture
Originated by the Musée des Arts Décoratifs in Paris, ‘Sculpting the Senses’ reveals the avant-garde wonder of Iris van Herpen, a truly transformative force in the world of fashion.
Watch | Journey through ‘Sculpting the Senses’
‘Iris van Herpen: Sculpting the Senses’ is at the Gallery of Modern Art (GOMA) Brisbane from 29 June to 7 October, across the ground floor in The Fairfax Gallery (1.1), Gallery 1.2, and the Eric and Marion Taylor Gallery (1.3).
The exhibition is co-organised by the Musée des Arts Décoratifs, Paris and QAGOMA, Brisbane, based on an original exhibition designed by the Musée des Arts Décoratifs, Paris.
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