2016 had an explosive start for me with the opening of Self styled, at the Gallery Isabelle Gounod in Paris.
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| By Marie-Paola Bertrand-Hillion |
After only few days in London, having spent Christmas time in France, I took the Eurostar back to Paris to help Anthony Lycett to prepare his exhibition and perform on the opening night 9th of january.
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| View of the personal exhibition of Anthony Lycett "Self Styled" / Exhibition view of Anthony Lycett's solo show "Self Styled" Galerie Isabelle Gounod, Paris |
"The working Lycett, photographer living in London, explores and portrays the "sub culture "London and Paris. His analytical approach documents the forms of self-representation that elevate the style to cult status. The exhibition offers a look at his most recent work, which follows a working almost ten years of capture portraits of individuals from social currents of the present time. The series "Self-Styled" started in 2008, today includes more than 200 diptychs representing eccentrics, dandies, punks, Gothic, transvestites and the forefront of London and Paris."
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| By Marie-Paola Bertrand-Hillion |
We didn't know what to expect. We were inhabited by a mix of excitement and fear. Are people going to come? Are Parisian ready for this?
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| By Marie-Paola Bertrand-Hillion |
At the end, the event was a very successful night animated by a very colourful and eclectic crown. You could believe you were in London, as if all the eccentric of Paris came out from their hidden dark cave. The styled people of the audience acted as a reflexion of the portrait hanged on the wall giving a third dimension to the prints as if theses extravagant characters came to life escaped from their frame!
I could hear people saying "At last, an event when you can dress up in Paris without being judged"
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| By Marie-Paola Bertrand-Hillion |
I had the best reactions I never had from doing my Lego performance (maybe because I used my biggest and more beautiful one which obviously make a statement).
I was very lucky my Mum made it (legally) crossing the channel about a year ago, transporting it from London to Paris as I couldn't keep this 3m diameter structure in my tiny flat! (Read the article about the Lego dress originally made for London 2013 fashion week)
While doing some little alterations for the performance, my cat started playing with it and I hoped the audience will enjoy it as much as him!
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| By Marie-Paola Bertrand-Hillion
As I said before, The performance becomes the meeting point of two creativity, mine and the audience's one who directly takes part in the design of the dress creating a different and unique result at every performances. Involving toys, my performance attempts to convey the nostalgia of themselves, like a "Proust madeleine" Legos entail remembrance feeling, creating an intimate connexion between me and the child within the spectator. The common iconic objects becomes the medium of a the social link in a society where people are hooked to their phone and tablets and interact less with people in the real life.
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Through this performance, I also try to explore the status of woman's body in post-modern society through the performance art .In a beautiful costume, the woman's body is celebrated and glorified but also objectified , contrived and becomes vulnerable to the interaction of the audience that often try to transgress the rules defined by the performance. It is in this paradox of powerfulness and fragility that the woman's body becomes art.
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| By Marie-Paola Bertrand-Hillion
At the opening I met Florence, I young art student who told me she was following my work since she saw me on Sept à Huit on TF1 and that I inspired her to dress more crazy more colourful and to not care about people from school would tell about her look. I feel to glad and blessed to her that, suddenly I felt everything I was fighting for in my practice was making sense. I wish someone would have told me when I was 18 that it is ok to be different and that it is actually an strength. I am so glad I can inspire some people at my little scale and push them to express their creativity.
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By Marie-Paola Bertrand-Hillion
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| By Marie-Paola Bertrand-Hillion |
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| By Marie-Paola Bertrand-Hillion |
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| Jean Picon the famous photographer from Say who "ajoutant sa brique à l'édifce". |
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| By Marie-Paola Bertrand-Hillion |
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| By Marie-Paola Bertrand-Hillion |
Me, myself and I, or 3 version of me. It is such a weird feeling to see your pictures framed in an art gallery and thinking someone could buy it and put it in his living room! But I actually have the uncanny feeling of the strangely familiar, of a girl looking like me as this pictures have been taken two and one years ago.
As a teenager, I was drooling over Saywho pictures of glittery fashion people at hype parties... TODAY I AM IN IT!!!
find all the picture of the opening here
Someone told me "that is the dress Donkey skin should have asked to her father in the fairy tales instead of the Sun dress or the cloudy dress. Then the king wouldn't have been able to provide it and she wouldn't have to ask of the skin of the donkey!
The exhibition got a tremendous amount of press, Telerama, les in rocks, liberation, Vice, ID magazine etc…
If someone would have told me one day I would have my picture in the legendary magazine "les Inrocks"
I don't really like to see me on TV (especially hearing my voice) but this video conveys the great atmosphere of the opening and document well the performance, thanks to Kingz magazine.
And all the press is well deserved, for me, Anthony's work is more than simple portraits, it is the sign of a social phenomenon. 2016 will be placed on the sign of individuality and creativity, as show the launch of "all body type Barbies". There is a start of revolution in media where people can't accept to see one type of formatted beauty, and has Baudelaire said "Beautiful is always bizarre".
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| By Anthony Lycett |
Taking the advantage of being in Paris I had the opportunity to shoot some of my creations in a different background than London, showing that you don't have to fade in grey in the Parisian greyness.
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| By Anthony Lycett |
This is my new multicultural necklace subverting cultural appropriation by mixing Indians beads, African dolls & Peruvians figurines I made for the amazing Sue Kreitzman.
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| In front of Notre Dame, By Anthony Lycett |
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| Sur le Pont neuf By Anthony Lycett |
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| By Anthony Lycett |
I made this big cuffs bracelets for the gallerist Isabelle Gounod for her to wear at the opening. She is not an adept of maximalisitc style but with a black dress, the bracelets just looked stunning!
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| By Anthony Lycett |
She said "I feel I have a fairy tales at each wrists". Indeed I like to create jewels with a narrative. I sourced all the miniature toys in charity shop and car boots sales and stitched them on a fabric base assembling them according to heir shapes and colours.
Also for a fresh start of the year I made a new website, feel free to have a look (my projects are more classified by theme rather than chronologically on my blog!)
I also had a new logo made by my very talented sister, now I need to figure out how to print my own labels!
