Image credit: Isabel Asha Penzlien
When Hedi Slimane took the mantle at Celine last year he told that it meant starting “a new chapter” with the 74-year-old French fashion house. “We arrive then with our own stories, our own culture, a personal semantic that is different from the ones of houses in which we create,” he continued. “We have to be ourselves, without any stance, against all odds.”
Now remember, Slimane is as much a photographer as a fashion designer. He has taken residency at the Kunst-Werke Institute for Contemporary Art in Berlin and exhibits with Almine Rech gallery, who represent the likes of Richard Prince and Jeff Koons – two of the world’s most expensive living artists – as well as fashion’s favourite portrait painter Chloe Wise. It’s natural, then, that art would play a central role in his vision for Celine.
In February, the brand announced that British artist James Balmforth had been commissioned to create an original artwork for the Celine’s Madison Avenue store, as part of a new architectural concept that will be implemented worldwide. Several more artist partnerships have been announced since, including Elaine Cameron-Weir (above) and Oscar Tuazon for the Tokyo and Paris stores respectively. met the trio to learn more about their practice, their lives in and out of the studio and what motivates them.
Image credit: Courtesy of Elaine Cameron Weir
Elaine Cameron-Weir
The 34-year-old Canadian sculptor grew up in rural Alberta before moving to the buzzing metropolis of New York to gain her MFA from NYU’s prestigious Steinhardt School. Her work, which in part explores humans’ growing disassociation from the natural world, has been exhibited internationally, including two recent solo shows at the Dortmunder Kunstverein in Germany (2018) and New York’s New Museum (2017).
“When I was 19, after my first year studying drawing at the Alberta College of Art and Design, I rode a Greyhound bus for 72 hours to Northern Ontario where I had a forestry job for the summer planting trees. I slept in a tent and planted every day with a minimum quota of 2000 trees per shift. You got paid per tree so it was like a weird tree Olympics – the more you planted the more money you made. At the end of the summer, I caught the train to New York on a whim. It was the first time I had been to the city and that was pretty much when I decided I wanted to live there.”
Image credit: Courtesy of Elaine Cameron Weir
On her first impressions of urban living
“After I finished my undergraduate degree, I relocated to New York at the age of 23 to do my MFA in Studio Art at NYU. I hadn’t been to a city like New York before my first trip there, but I wasn’t overwhelmed, rather amazed by the high energy and fast pace of everything. Although I grew up in a small town, I was never interested in staying, it just felt more natural for me to be in a place where there’s more going on, more people around, more diversity and opportunities to seek an audience for what I do.”
“When I was asked to do this project, the space wasn’t yet complete, but I knew what size the piece needed to be (nine metres) and that it would be installed near a spiral staircase, so I wanted to make something that worked with that. is a continuation of a sculpture series I started in 2016 only bigger. It’s made from enamelled copper scales arranged over a chain-metal screen so that it resembles a snakeskin. I had been thinking a lot about the cyclical nature of things and how snakes are used to symbolise that, whether in Biblical allegories like Adam and Eve or the ouroboros in various ancient iconographies, which show a serpent eating its own tail as a metaphor for eternal return.”
Image credit: Courtesy of Celine
“I find it interesting when humans refer to the natural world as though we as a species are separate from it or in some way outside of its jurisdiction. I consider these types of disassociation through sensory knowledge of material. And obviously all materials have their origins in natural resources, some of them have just gone through a series of processes designed by humans. I’m interested in how we define what is synthetic versus what is deemed natural, what is elemental or true versus what’s created.”
Elaine Cameron-Weir has a solo show opening at New York’s JTT Gallery in September.
Image credit: Nick Seaton
James Balmforth
Describing himself as a “frustrated engineer”, the 39-year-old, London-based artist uses daring industrial techniques to create his colossal sculptures – pushing materials like concrete and steel to the limit. A graduate of the esteemed Chelsea College of Arts, Balmforth’s work has been exhibited at the Royal Academy of Arts and Tate Britain, and he is represented by pioneering South London gallerist Hannah Barry.
“I try not to take anything as a given. As a student at the Chelsea College of Arts I would reinterpret what my lecturers were saying; I think jumbling information leads to forming new wholes. It’s the same when it comes to books, cinema and music. At the moment I’m reading by Reza Negarestani and Mark Wilson’s – I always read several books at once so I can cross-pollinate the ideas explored in them. The film essays (Chris Marker) and (Johan Grimonprez) are among my favourites because they allow you to draw your own conclusions. In my studio I tend to listen to music without any lyrics as it’s less distracting – my song of the moment is by Boy Harsher. Collectively these stimuli contribute to developing ideas and exploring new processes.”
Image credit: Barney Hindle
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“It’s a challenge being an artist in a major city like London because the cost of living is very high, especially when you are a sculptor – you need space. At times I have considered moving to the countryside or elsewhere in England, but I need the creative energy of London and the connections that can be made here given its status as an art capital. I’m based in Peckham where I help do maintenance for a non-profit organisation in exchange for workspace, it’s good to have an arrangement that is mutually beneficial.”
“I’m something of a frustrated engineer – through my work I employ industrial techniques and mechanisms to expose materials to extreme conditions such as pressure and heat. One tool I’ve used a lot lately is a thermic lance. It’s like a torch and can burn concrete and steel at a temperature of 7,000 degrees, and is usually used for demolition work. It’s really quite terrifying and I have to wear protective leather clothes to use it and breathing apparatus because it can create metal vapours and you don’t want to be inhaling those. As you can imagine, you ideally need to use it in an open and unpopulated space – and it’s good to see the finished sculptures displayed in an open setting too. One such place is Contemporary Sculpture Fulmer in Buckinghamshire outside London where some of my work is currently on display. They’re set among beautiful private gardens originally laid in the late 19th century by Sir Harry Legge, a personal aide-de-camp to Queen Victoria – she used to plant trees there.”
Image credit: Courtesy of Celine
“ is a continuation of a series I started in 2016. It’s an eight-and-a-half-feet-tall tower of four stainless steel cubes positioned on top of one another. One face of each cube has been worked on with a thermic lance – the chemical reaction that takes place is essentially hyper accelerated rusting, an oxidation of the iron within the steel. The resulting material is darkened and has a bubbly texture like dried lava. This residue is known as slag and considered waste product in industry. I like the idea of giving it purpose and value.”
Image credit: Nuage Lepage
Oscar Tuazon
Out of his Los Angeles studio – itself part of a work of art entitled (2015), a nod to Steve Baer’s – the 43-year-old Seattle native investigates the relationship between art, architecture and environmental sustainability using wood, concrete, glass and steel to create installations that encourage a sense of community. Currently the subject of three major solo exhibitions at the Aspen Art Museum, Michigan State University and Bellevue Arts Museum near Seattle, Tuazon has also shown at the Venice Biennale and major fairs such as Art Basel and Frieze.
“Hedi and I met in 2011 when he invited me to be part of his exhibition at the Almine Rech Gallery in Brussels. We were living parallel lives between LA and Paris and were aware of one another’s work. He was exhibiting an anthology of his photography and I contributed three sculptures. We spent the best part of a week installing the show, working together and thinking together and have stayed in touch ever since.”
Image credit: Courtesy of Celine
“Fashion and artist collaborations can be fraught with danger because of the power imbalance, with the brand dictating what the artist can and can’t do. What excites me most about this project is that Hedi gave me carte blanche. Travel has informed the work I’ve been producing lately with shipping containers and other transportation infrastructures. is a site-specific installation for Celine made from steel, fir and oak wood, concrete, aluminium and paint in the form of a shipping container floor. When you come to a shop you are there to touch and experience the clothes, so I wanted to create something that invites physical engagement.”
“In 2016 I went to the Dakota Access Pipeline protests at the Standing Rock Indian Reservation and this sparked my interest in water systems. I’m currently showing one of my projects at the Eli and Edythe Broad Art Museum, Michigan State University. The installation, a large glass façade filled with water, is inspired by the engineer and inventor Steve Baer, who created the Zome Home (1972), one of the earliest examples of passive solar architecture. During the day, the building collects and stores the sun’s energy in drums of water installed in large, bay windows, which then provide heat during the night.”
Image credit: Courtesy of Luhring Augustine
“I think making connections between creativity and the natural world is really important – architecture and design have the power to help alleviate the pressure we are putting on the environment. My project comprises a series of public talks and arts programming to address water, land rights and other socio-environmental issues. Typically artists work in isolation but it’s been really exciting to work with people and create a sense of community and expand beyond the conventional art space. My current solo show, at the Bellevue Arts Museum near Seattle, features work made in collaboration with at least 15 people. Among them is the architect Antoine Rocca who worked with me on two concrete fire pits – the second is on display at my other solo show at the Aspen Art Museum right now. The idea is to bring people together around the warmth of the fire.”