McQueen’s SS99 "No.13" merges fashion, art, and history, inspired by the Arts and Crafts movement. The collection used natural tones, materials and handmade craftsmanship to reject mass production. The result: A romantic yet honest collection featuring a sinister interaction between one of the models and two robots. My gesamtkunstwerk explores the Arts and Crafts and focuses on investigating tensions between paradoxes: handmade and technological, pain and pleasure, dominance and submission, strength and fragility, man and machine. Notably, it examines the tension between the quaint softness and intense violence in McQueen’s work through the language of the macabre.
Plan: Sitting on the more neglected Eastern side of Carriageworks, much like McQueen’s work, the positioning squeezes the pavilion into an area that plays with proportions in an uncanny manner.
Elevation: The pavilion is contained and minimal in nature. It's filled with details and considerations that nod to No.13 in what becomes an overwhelming sensory experience.
External Perspective: The structure is a steel frame adorned in steel thorns or spikes, entirely draped in a chainmail mesh that gathers on the concrete ground, creating a constant audible clinging.
Connection Details: Intentionally rough, violent and crude, exposing the harshness and sometimes grotesque nature of each material and confronting those experiencing the pavilion with an unexpected experience accentuating material qualities.
Detailed Perspectives: Acting as instructions to assist assembly, the details reveal the intricacies of the design and materials that clearly reference the qualities of No.13's garment construction and techniques.