Sistaaz of the Castle - Duran Lantink x Jan Hoek

Sistaaz of the Castle - Duran Lantink x Jan Hoek, highlight at Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week Amsterdam

Photographer Jan Hoek and fashion designer Duran Lantink present Sistaaz of the Castle, a project about the colourful looks of transgender sex workers that roam the streets of Cape Town, South Africa.
Together they created a series of photographs and a fashion collection around their fashionable appearances, and their ability to make the most exuberant creations of everything they find.
From 13 January till 20 January the project was on display at Foam.
The local sex workers’ organisation, S.W.E.A.T., gave Jan Hoek and Duran Lantink the opportunity to meet and collaborate with their transgender support group Sistaazhood. For this project, Hoek and Lantink zoom in on six girls from the community: Coco (25), Cleopatra (23) Sulaiga (30), Gabby (29) Flavinia (33) and Joan Collins (57).
Most of the girls are homeless, living under a bridge beside the castle of Cape Town. Jan Hoek photographed their lives and their outfits. The photos also serve as a lookbook for the collection of Duran Lantink. The designer was inspired by the creative ability of the girls to produce beautiful creations from found pieces of garments. He recognised a similarity to his own process, using different recycling methods and collage techniques.
The artists were also interested in how the girls would want to look like if they had unlimited possibilities. One of the girls would like to work in a luxurious Victorian brothel. The 57-year-old Joan Collins dreams of a wedding dress and a third wants to become Miss Africa. All these fantasies are translated into a dream-couture capsule collection by Lantink, which is also photographed by Hoek.

Duran Lantink (1987) is the wild child of fashion in the Netherlands. In 2013 he graduated at the Gerrit Rietveld Academy in Amsterdam and is now studying the Master Fashion Matter at the Sandberg Institute. His collections, styling and exhibitions often contain honest messages and are a dizzying remix of anything that inspires him. Similar to the South-African girls of Sistaaz of the Castle, Duran uses different recycle methods. His style is raw and colourful and dark at the same time. With his towering 3D printed shoes, he made national and international acclaim. The shoes are exhibited a.o. at the Louvre in Paris and the MET in New York. As a stylist and designer, Duran has worked for several magazines, such as Vogue, Glamcult and D&A Mexico.
http://duranlantink.com/

Jan Hoek (1984) photographs amateur models, mentally ill homeless people in Africa who look like kings, a girl with no arms and legs that constantly wants to be photographed, heroin addicts with a modelling dream, or people he found through an advertisement on Marktplaats. Jan Hoek graduated in 2012 at Image and Language at the Gerrit Rietveld Academy. His work is exhibited in a.o. Foam in Amsterdam, FOMU in Antwerp and in St. Petersburg, Shenzhen and Lagos. Jan Hoek is represented by Galerie Ron Mandos Amsterdam. 
http://janhoek.net/

photography: Peter Stigter

Felix &Foam Opening

The historic Felix Meritis house in Amsterdam’s Nine Streets district was fully packed during Felix &Foam / Frame pop-up store opening last week.
Felix &Foam is a new initiative by Foam in collaboration with Frame and restaurant Foyer in the monumental building Felix Meritis on the Keizersgracht in Amsterdam. For six months Felix &Foam will organise a full program of arts and culture with a focus on work by young and upcoming talent. Besides photography the agenda includes performances, video, fashion, and design.

Felix Meritis house is located at 324 Keizersgracht in Amsterdam. https://www.facebook.com/felixandfoam
http://foam.org/felix-foam
http://www.frameweb.com

Diane Arbus at Foam

What an amazing experience to see the iconic work of Diane Arbus at the exhibition in Amsterdam. 

Hurry up! 

Diane Arbus can be seen from 26 October 2012 - 13 January 2013 at Foam. 

http://www.foam.org

Diane Arbus (1923-1971) revolutionized the art she practiced. Her bold subject matter and photographic approach produced a body of work that is often shocking in its purity, in its steadfast celebration of things as they are. Her gift for rendering strange those things we consider most familiar, and for uncovering the familiar within the exotic, enlarges our understanding of ourselves.

MOAM & Foam

Queuing for Moam & Foam opening

Last night I attended the opening of MOAM in &Foam in Amsterdam. The exhibition is a huge success. Its support resulted in overcrowded space and a long queue for the opening and that is well deserved!

MOAM is an exhibition where fiftheen contemporary photographers work together with fifteen designers.
MOAM has selected one iconic image from three reputable Dutch photographers, Anton Corbijn, Inez van Lamsweerde & Vinoodh Matadin and Erwin Olaf and asked fifteen other talented photographers to translate these three images. As a result, five different interpretations on the occasion of the same photo. Inspiring and creative combinations that shine a new light on existing iconical photos.

three iconic images

In addition, each photographer is linked to a Dutch designer. This gives an innovative look at the iconic images. An interesting collaboration between the most successful names and the promising newcomers from the Dutch fashion and photography scene.














Participants
Alique & SPR+
Blommers/Schumm & Mattijs van Bergen
Carmen Kemmink & Borre Akkersdijk
Dennis Swiatkowski & Frans Molenaar
Jasper Abels & Avelon
Jolijn Snijders & Claes Iversen
Maarten Alexander & Sjaak Hullekes
Marc de Groot & Yvonne Kwok
Martien Mulder & Peet Dullaert
Paul Bellaart & Jan Taminiau
Philippe Vogelenzang & Winde Rienstra
Robin de Puy & Francisco van Benthum
Sanja Marušić & Hellen van Rees
Sophie van der Perre & G-Star
Valentina Vos & Nisha Rabiee

MOAM is an initiative of curator and event creative director Martijn Nekoui. This is his second project after the successful debut last year with the MOAM exhibition; fashion exhibition where twelve young contemporary talents gave reinterpretation to twelve Dutch fashion historic highlights.
http://www.martijnnekoui.com/

Impressions of the opening

Paul Bellaart & Jan Taminiau

'B u r n t' by Robert Wun

Robert Wun graduated from London College of Fashion in 2012 with ' B u r n t' collection ♥'s 


http://www.robertwun.com
http://robertwun.tumblr.com/






























'' B u r n t '' by Robert Wun 2012

Curiosity towards the bonds between Nature and Man has always been a main inspiration to me. Discovering the symmetrical flaws in nature led me to a deeper attraction of microphotographs of butterflies and moths. Insects we perceive to be symmetrical and consequently, beautiful. Yet it was the flaws in nature that triggered my interest. Where nature design many things in symmetrical proportions but yet both left and right sides are slightly different.
To achieve this particular idea I had to use techniques whereby you cannot control the outcome, like burning and melting. Delve into the idea that nothing is perfect.
All those ruffles are created by waddings with burnt out gradient patterns, highly crafted in-between with glass organza. Also led to a very artificial fabric ranges, Neoprene, Organza, Lycra, Foam and waddings. Using artificial based resources to regenerate an idea of nature with organic working methods. Symbolizing the relations between man and nature.
While the ombre effects created by digital printings and hand dip-dyed works like a harmony between two extremes. Man and Nature, Black and White. Something I always fascinated and inspired from.
Accessories’ detail development looked towards the structure of insects under a microscope, examining the scales and limbs intricately and transporting these spiky visuals into platform heels with a horned toe.
The idea of nature versus artificial, generated as a vision of a striking, independent women’s wear collection, bizarre in a sophisticated, yet appealing way.

Courtesy of Robert Wun

Photography by Ina Jang

In December last year I've visited the Foam Talent 2011 exhibition. A showcase of 15 promising photographers who are selected from 800 portfolio's.
Among them is Ina Jang from South Korea with selection of works from a project called 'In a World Without Words'.
Take a look at her beautiful work.
http://inaphotography.com/

Inez van Lamsweerde & Vinoodh Matadin / Pretty Much Everything

Inez van Lamsweerde & Vinoodh Matadin / Pretty Much Everything /

photographs 1985-2010
25 June 2010 until 15 September 2010 at Foam



Inez and Vinoodh began their work together in 1986 in Amsterdam. Now, 25 years later, with their campaigns for fashion houses such as YSL, Chanel, Balmain, Gucci, Louis Vuitton and Chloé, and with regular publications in W Magazine, Vogue and The New York Times, they are amongst the most important photographers in the world today. They are amongst the very few artists that have successfully crossed the line drawn between fashion and art and have managed to simultaneously maintain careers in both fields. The team has lived and worked in New York since 1995.



You can see the work of the famous photographic duo Inez van Lamsweerde and Vinoodh Matadin at Foam (Amsterdam)until the 15th of September. It is worth a visit!










Foam shows approximately 300 photographs spanning 25 years of the duo’s career. Art, fashion and portrait works all exist next to each other. By disregarding any chronological order the combinations of images are based on personal, formal, social, political and intuitive associations that show the way the artists have lived with the images for 25 years.

© Inez van Lamsweerde & Vinoodh Matadin