Insideout Magazine by Ding Ding

INSIDEOUT e x t e r n a l i z e

t h e

i n n e r

w o r l d

2015 Summer Issue

￡8

mehle.co.uk

T H E

EDITOR'S

T E A M

LETTER

Editors: Ding Ding (stephytin1990@gmail.com) Tao Li (Litao.bift@gmail.com) Sales Managers: Xiao-bo Gao (gxblynn@hotmail.com) Shih-Yuan Sun (stsley.sun@gmail.com) Contributing Photographers: Hung-Chun Wang (chun0111@hungchunwang.com) Muka (mukavision@gmail.com) Contributing Stylist: Nan Zhang (stylist.nan@foxmail.com) Contributing Illustrator: Zhiwen Tang (tangzhiwen215@gmail.com) Contributing Graphic Designer: Baike Hu (hakoo2013@gmail.com) Thanks to: Evgenia Tarasova

At the end of last winter, we decided to create an indie magazine - or an “inspiration book” as we called it. We sought inspirations from what we have experienced in life and what we felt deep down inside, which makes the magazine very emotionally provocative. We hope that, in this way, the contents are full of “touching” and can resonate with our readers. Now our first issue, themed Externalize the Inner World, is out to welcome this summer. We believe that within us, there is a world filled with crazy magical things and weird obsessions, which has a deep influence on who we are today. In the section of editorial and illustration, we explore the quirks, the bond between people, the wild dreams, the melancholy and the decadence, giving the magazine a sense of darkness and whimsicality. We are also lucky enough to interview two talented artists, mask designer Magnhild Kennedy and taxidermist Adele Morse, who kindly share their stories and one-of-a-kind artworks with us. Turn the clock back to a few decades ago, we have photographer Diane Arbus, whose photos reveal what was otherwise invisible: the mystery and the banality of death and suffering; then we give you the revolutionary costume designer Eiko Ishioka, who designed for movies and stage plays in a subversive way. Despite the magazine does not paint the full picture of the inner world, we hope it will help you take a step deep into your heart and be inspired as we have.

Supported by: www.neverknown.co.uk

Cover：

Photographer: Hung-Chun Wang Model: Ellery Chase Dress: Xinyuan Xu

Co-editors-in-chief: Ding Ding & Tao Li

C O N T E N T S

Dress Up in the Face Mask Designer Magnhild Kennedy 14

The Bond 26

Meet Adele Morse: â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;each animal has a personality of its ownâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; 32

The Wild Dreams 40

A Letter to Myself 46

A Sketch for the Costume Designer Eiko Ishioka 52

Brain Songs 58

Diane Arbus: Seeing the Unseen 66

Quirks

Dress Up in the Face Mask Designer Magnhild Kennedy

Text: Ding Ding Photography: Hung-Chun Wang

In a sunny spring afternoon, I meet Magnhild Kennedy outside her house, a quiet two-story space located in east London. She smiles and waves at me, with her beautiful dog Franklin by her side. Follow Magnhild and

ask if we can take some photos for her and

Franklin, we are lead into her workplace.

her work, she welcomes us with open arms during her busiest times.

Has been a mask maker since 2007, Magnhild, also known as Damselfrau, moved

Step into the first floor, a place full of old but

from Norway to London to pursue a lifestyle

have-a-story-to-tell stuffs collected from flea

that she conceives and loves. Her masks

markets and car boot sales, Magnhild fetches

were featured in Beyonce's television promo,

out all the masks and lets us pick what we

Britain's Next Top Model promo and amazing

need for the shoot. Although facing the lens

exhibitions and magazines such as Vogue

is not quite a comfortable thing for her, she

Italia. In her blog Damselfrau, you can find

does everything our photographer asks.

those superb images of her work. When I

While Franklin is roaming around, we get talking about this and that â&#x20AC;&#x201C; the Norwegians, the pets, the Chinese old movies she watched when she was little, and of course, herself and the masks.

Could you tell us a bit about your background? I am originally from Trondheim, Norway and moved to London in 2007. I have worked in the restaurant industry the large part of my

from. Everywhere. I don't design or draw,

working life. I moved to London to get away

and I never approach a piece with a concept.

from it. It worked.

It all starts with whatever material I feel for and I just sculpt from there. Whilst working

What does the name Damselfrau mean?

I watch a lot of TV and film. I listen to a lot of drama on BBC radio. I follow a huge

It used to be my Skype name long before

amount of blogs and Tumblrs. I used to read

I got into the masks. It stuck with me as I

a lot of comics, futuristic ones. Heavy Metal

couldn't quite figure out what it meant and it

Magazine, Jean Giraud and Enki Bilal. I love

seemed like a name that was masking it self.

Sci-fi. When I make a piece I tend to think of

A Damsel is a young unmarried woman and

it as something I would naturally wear in a

a Frau is a married or widowed woman. To

future city.

me it has come to mean married to one self. What is your process of making a mask

How did you get started as a mask

like? Are there any challenges?

maker?

I am self-taught, so I come across a lot of When we moved to London there was this

technical challenges. I have to improvise a lot

Boombox dress-up club culture and we

when solving problems. It's an important part

came over the Last Tuesday Society masked

of the work, I learn something. And there is

parties. There was all this opportunity to

always YouTube if I cannot figure stuff out.

make costumes, new ones every week! I grew tired of the partying, but the mask

It's rarely a hard task to start a piece. It's

format stuck with me. I just kept making

pretty easy to get the juices flowing. On rare

them. My greatest passion when I was a

occasion, a piece will have to wait a bit for

child was paper dolls. I think this is just my

the right final piece of material to come along

grown-up interpretation.

to complete it. A piece isn't done until it has been named, photographed and posted

The exquisite embroideries and beadings

online. Then it becomes a being. That's

on the masks are so stunning! Where did

where it communicates. Finding names is a

you draw inspirations from?

nice part of the creative process. I have to look at the piece and think about what it looks

Thank you!

like, find references (is it an animal, plant, does

It's hard to say where the inspiration comes

it have reference in literature). I hunt down a name on Wikipedia and morph it until it sounds like what the piece looks like. Is the piece more an O, I or M?

Where do you usually find your materials? I find materials anywhere. I'm a thrifter, Skip diver and car boot fiend. I love textile shops, but it's more interesting if the material is

Mask fetish is a well established fetish.

previously used as it informs the work. The

I have no problem with my masks being

old stuff you can find on this little island is

associated with fetish, but personally, it's not

mind-blowing.

my approach.

I read on your blog that a piece of

Some say art is a way, or an outlet, to

your work is showed in the exhibition

express the inner self. Does making

FETISHISM and some were showed in

masks mean the same to you?

a book named Fetishism in Fashion. It seems like your work has a connection

Ye s . M y w o r k i s a p l a c e w h e r e I c a n

with fetish fashion?

communicate with little to no talk. I'm a big talker and often ramble away about nothing, the mask save me from myself. They have a name, but that's pretty much it. Everything else is what the viewer projects.

The Bond Editor: Tao Li Photographer: Muka Stylist: Nan Zhang Make-up: Izzy Cammareri & Porsche Poon Pose director: Yu Shu Models: Katie Grant & Grace Wodzianski

An inner bond draws one person to another. It is the light in the dark. It mends your broken heart and holds you to the ground. In the book The Perpetual Calendar of Inspiration, Vera Nazarian wrote about human bonding like this: “Sometimes, reaching out and taking someone's hand is the beginning of a journey. At other times, it is allowing another to take yours.”

Grace Wodzianski – top & trousers: Patrick Yang Katie Grant – dress: Patrick Yang Shoes: Carolin Holzhuber

Katie Grant – twin set: Wanbing Huang Grace Wodzianski – dress: Wanbing Huang Head piece: Nan Studio

Dress: Nan Studio

If you have run out of ways to embrace your inner self, try stuffing an animal. You’ve had an encounter with taxidermy, whether

Meet Adele Morse: 'each animal has a personality of its own' Text: Tao Li

it was with a hunting trophy, a museum exhibition, or a piece of modern art. If you give the animals more than just a passing glimpse, you’ll feel something of taxidermy’s

Could you tell us a little bit about your

mysterious hypnotic presence, the way it

background?

draws your eyes and attention. I grew up in the south Wales valleys and Taxidermy is never a mundane thing. It

spent most of my time up the mountains

requires death. On the other hand, it prevents

collecting animals or drawing. My "out there"

a once-living creature from decaying into

fashion sense and tastes didn’t go down too

dust, keeping a memory frozen in time, like

well in Wales. After many trips to London as

a 3D photograph. It is driven by the longing

a teenager I fell in love with the place. It was

to tell our own stories about who we are

the first time I could go anywhere and be

and our place within the natural order – the

myself without someone saying something.

symbols and tales we use to make our world When I was 18, I moved to London to do my

make sense.

BA in Fashion and Fine Art. I began to do As a fanatical lover of this mysterious and

taxidermy as a hobby at that time. After my

peculiar art, I am happy to get a chance to

BA I did my Master’s degree at the Royal

interview Adele Morse, a Welsh artist and

Academy schools and continued to do

taxidermist currently living and working in

taxidermy privately for personal use, friends

London. Morse’s taxidermy is a homage to all

and also some clients. Now I am working

things dead, mounted, and stuffed. She tells

full time as a taxidermist whilst also trying to

us that each animal has its own personality,

maintain my artistic practice.

which is always something she tries to bring into the finished piece, and you can tell.

How did you get started as a taxidermist?

Check out this young talented taxidermist’s

Why?

subtle connection with the stuffed animals I always loved taxidermy from a really young

and her spiritual world.

age. However, I didn’t actually manage to get my hands on everything I needed until I was 19. I learned the skill all by myself via the Internet as it was too costly to learn from others.

Image courtesy of Adele Morse

More than anything I really love animals. I find them fascinating. We don’t speak the same language but I have always felt some connection with animals. I love the idea of bringing something back to life or the idea of permanence. Thousands of species went

this kind of living 3D character that I have in

extinct before our species even began, and

my head when I look at the mount. It’s about

it makes me sad to think that I will never

the animal itself, not the process and history

really know what the great elk looked like or

or tradition of taxidermy. I see each animal as

understand its size and presence.

an individual. I am not trying to be the most

Taxidermy is the single best and oldest

give that animal as much personality in death

snapshot from the past, which is far better

as it had in life.

technically good taxidermist; I am trying to

than fossils or bones. The true way we can communicate with something is visually in 3D.

What kind of animals do you mostly like

It’s the skin or the shell that gives a tangible

to mount to create an art piece?

sense of the animal. At the same time I am really interested in the power of that.

I don’t think of any of the taxidermy as an art piece really. I think to call something an

Have you been influenced by any other

art piece takes it away from the animal itself.

taxidermists’ work? Maybe Walter Potter?

It reduces it to a material. Its importance is then on a par with the plastic eyes or the wire

Yeah I love Potter. I don’t agree with all his

inside. I think calling something taxidermy

ethics but you can tell he was genuinely

shines the light on the animal and not on me,

passionate about animals. His pieces have

which is what I want.

so much personality. There are a lot of anthropomorphic taxidermists now, but their

The Stoned Fox is really famous on the

approach seems to be to take a mouse, and

Internet. I love the fox’s vacant stare on

then add some accessories to make him look

its face. Does it have a name? Is there any

like a doctor, etc. But for me personally, I take

story behind this fox?

the animal and I mount it and fiddle until there is a magic moment where it feels like it’s alive,

The fox is just called the fox. The replica I

I then see what the animal looks like. I see

have made since have names (Geoff, Smiler,

what would suit that animal’s personality and

etc) but the original was never given a name.

go about making all the accessories to match

In Russia, the Stoned Fox thing started and since then I call him that too. That fox was

Image courtesy of Adele Morse

actually the first one I ever did and it was very badly damaged. It was by far the most disgusting thing I have ever skinned but also my most well-known piece. I still don’t fully know why or how, but after spending

years with various people and the fox, any conversation you’re having, whatever tour you’re doing, the fox seems to fit in. He always has the right expression and always makes people smile. When people come into contact with him, they hug and kiss him on the head, and he really smells!

at the top of the food chain, we would be thinking “Oh god! Why couldn’t they just eat

What’s your most memorable thing about

some grass and not my Nan?”

being a taxidermist? Some people might think the stuffed Probably the fox. It was a real endurance

animals are a little creepy. What do you

test and it was gruelling and disgusting, but

think?

that was just a part of this work. You are dealing with something that was alive and is

I think it depends on a person’s relationship

now rapidly decaying in your hands and you

with animals and death. I get why some

have a small window to stop this process. It’s

people don’t like to think about it or see it. For

exciting and also incredibly sad at the same

me it’s the opposite. I like to see everything

time. On a more superficial fangirl moment…

and know everything, no matter how bad it

When Snoop Dogg instagrammed a photo of

is. I’m not religious and I am very much into

the fox, I felt like I was dreaming. I’m proud

science. So the idea of death isn’t something

of him in some freaky way!

I find scary or upsetting in any way and never have. A lot of people don’t like to be

It is well known that you’re a vegetarian

reminded of death and that’s fair enough. It

taxidermist. Was the vegetarianism

never bothers me if someone doesn’t like

a reaction to taxidermy, or were you

taxidermy.

a vegetarian before you became a taxidermist?

You like the concept of permanence. For

Image courtesy of Adele Morse

you, do these animals still have souls in their afterlife?

I have been vegetarian for 14 years. I don’t

What kind of people are your costumers?

regard animals as meat or food (even if I

position to be making work for people who

still miss hot dogs every day!) I would feel

Hmm, that’s a tricky one. I think this is the

like a total psychopath if I worked all day on

bit I don’t know. Personally, I am hoping there

My customer base is so wide and varied. It’s

these animals and then took my gloves off

is no afterlife. I’ve done plenty in this life so

crazy. Recently, I made two custom pieces

and ate something’s leg. The boundaries

just sleeping sounds great. But having seen

for an entrepreneur’s 3-year-old daughter.

Do you think creating stuffed animals is

would be too blurred. So for me, I treat each

some pets die and both sides of life and death,

I have sold my work to a hoarder, to some

kind of a way, or an outlet, to express the

animal with a lot of respect. I think of my

I really can’t explain how the life just stops.

collectors. I sold Geoff, the fox, to Adam

inner self?

pets as family members and I just don’t want

It’s the most exciting thing in life to be able to

who wrote Much Ado about Stuffing Book

something to die for me to eat. If cows were

discover something new, or break new ground,

by @craptaxidermy. I have sold my works to

I suppose in a way it is an illustration of my

or prove something to be true. I hope the

people all over the world, like Latvia, Russia,

imagination but it’s more like collaboration

animals do have souls or some peace.

America, Australia. It’s very cool to be in a

between me and an animal.

really love it and I end up being friends and keeping in touch with a lot of my customers.

The wild dreams Editor: Ding Ding Photographer: Josh Chow Stylist: Nan Zhang Hair: Judit Florenciano Make-up & Illustration: Izzy Cammareri Prop: Olivia Yu Model: Katya Kotikova

In the dreamland we paint a wild world where anything is possible. The fairies, the myths or the monsters show themselves vividly that sometimes we feel more lucid than when we are awake.

Dress: Clarissa Kang Embroidery: Umme Salma

Dress: Yun-Pai Liu

Dress: Clarissa Kang Embroidery: Umme Salma

Dress: Vingi Wong

A Letter to Myself Editor: Tao Li Retouching: Ding Ding

In the past weeks we asked people a few personal questions â&#x20AC;&#x201C; What are you currently going through?

Boontarik Netcharassaeng: 27, LCF, MA Fashion Retail Management

What does it mean to you? How do you feel about it? People chose their own way to answer. Some drew, some wrote down words and told us a story, sharing their inner worlds generously.

Qin Zhou: 26, Rich Media Specialist

Qiyun Wang: 21, LCF, BA Fashion Jewellery

Wei Wang: 26, LCC, MA Illustration & Visual Media

Wen-yu Wu: 20, LCF, International Preparation for Fashion

Chieh-fang Lin: 26, LCF, MA Fashion Retail Management

A Sketch for the Costume Designer

She was using costume design to advance the narrative by making her clothes part of the set.

Eiko Ishioka

Text: Ding Ding In the 1992 movie Bram Stoker’s Dracula

narrative by making her clothes part of the

directed by Francis Ford Coppola, the

set. Really it was as much set design as

magnificent gothic costumes stole the show.

costume design. It was unmistakably look-at-

Gary Oldman, who played the vampire Count,

me, the centre of the frame.”

wore a suit of scarlet armour at the beginning of the movie. With all-over corrugation that looked like exposed musculature, the surreal unsettling guise made the Count a classic image in movie history. Another vampire character Lucy Westenra, the heroine’s friend played by Sadie Frost, wore a white wedding gown, which featured an opulent ruff inspired by the frill-necked lizards, underscoring Lucy’s yielding to evil. These dramatic soul-stirring costumes were designed by Eiko Ishioka, the visionary costume designer who won an Oscar for the artistic contribution to Bram Stoker’s Dracula. “Eiko is the high court of horror,” notes Deborah Nadoolman Landis, historian at UCLA. “It was always about the opulence and always so elegant and refined… She Eiko Ishioka by Robert Mapplethorpe, 1983

was using costume design to advance the

As one of the most influential art directors in the world, Ishioka died of pancreatic cancer at the age of 73 in 2012. Her credits included movies such as Mishima: A Life in Four Chapters, Immortals and Mirror Mirror. The design of Miles Davis’s album Tutu won

of compromise, she still was still successful.

her a Grammy Award in 1986. She also

A scene in the section of Written Character

directed Bjork’s 2002 music video Cocoon

was her favourite – performers in Zhou-era

and designed costumes for Grace Jones’s

black to white ombré costume, representing

Hurricane Tour in 2009.

the 3000 disciples of Confucius, holding bamboo slips and reciting quotations from the

Yet Ishioka did not neglect function. When

Analects. The costume not only had ancient

she was designing costumes for the musical

Chinese philosophy within itself, but also

Spiderman: Turn Off the Dark, she decided

successfully made the performers look bigger

to take on the role of director of costume

and overcame the distance problem, which

design for the opening ceremony of the

was over 100 to 150 meters between the

2008 Beijing Summer Olympics. It was quite

audience and the performers in the stadium.

Actress Faye Dunaway stared in one of the Parco campains

different from what Ishioka had done before - for an individual artist, instead of doing his

Ishioka’s portfolio also extended to Broadway,

or her own work in a place like the Olympics,

the circus and other creative fields. In 1988,

a much bigger audience must be taken

her scenic design and costume design for the

into consideration. Although only a few of

Broadway play M. Butterfly written by David

Ishioka’s ideas remained in the end because

Henry Hwang, earned her two Tony Award nominations, an Outer Critics Circle Award and an American Theatre Wing Design Award. In 1996 she took on the Broadway magic show, Dreams and Nightmares by the illusionist David Copperfield. And in late 2000, she was asked to design for the circus Cirque du Soleil’s touring show Varekai.

Lucy Westenra played by Sadie Frost in the 1992 movie Bram Stoker’s Dracula

In the early 1970s, Ishioka started her own advertising agency. Her work for the chief client Parco, a Biba-like chain of She even staged an Issey Miyake couture

boutique which sold lifestyle as much as

collection, making it a combination of musical

products, helped cement her reputation.

and one-act drama.

The campaigns for Parco challenged ordinary perceptions – they hardly described

However, few people know that Ishioka was

actual items that they sold at all. In one of

also a production and graphic designer. Born

the television commercials, for one and a

in Tokyo on July 12, 1938, Ishioka had a

half minutes the actress Faye Dunaway

traditional homemaker mother. Her father, a

slowly peeled and ate an egg, while gazing

graphic designer, encouraged her creative

straight at the lens, like she was performing

spirit, but did not agree with her following him

a Japanese noh play. In some print ads,

into the business: Japanese graphic art was

the models were nude or nearly so, which

a man’s game, women were still anomalies

was quite subversive and controversial at

– they were cultivated “to listen rather

that time. "Eroticism," Ishioka said, "is very

than speak”, as Ishioka said. But Ishioka

important in attracting people's souls."

persevered to become a graphic designer. After graduating from Tokyo National The set of the Golden Pivilion in the moive Mishima: A Life in Four Chapters

University of Fine Arts and Music in 1961, she joined the advertising division of the cosmetics giant Shiseido.

By the 1980s, Eiko Ishioka had become one of the most influential art directors and designers in Japan. In her 1982 solo show in New York, she met Nicholas Callaway, the owner of the publisher Callaway Edition.

and floor, creating a surreal space relieved

Callaway helped her publish her first book

only by wooden walkways. "I wanted to do a

Eiko By Eiko in 1983, a collection of her

big presentation.” Ishioka told Schrader. Later

early design work, and it was this book that

in 1985 Cannes Film Festival, she received

brought Ishioka the opportunity to design for

a special artistic achievement award for her

movies.

dedication to the movie.

The movie director Paul Schrader read

A few years later, because of the great

the book and approached Ishioka in 1985,

success of Bram Stoker’s Dracula, Ishioka

proposing a collaboration. The movie tells the

became involved in more Hollywood movies.

story of the celebrated author Yukio Mishima,

Among those directors, Tarsem Singh

whose radical political activities, homosexual

became the most closely associated one

orientation and ritual suicide made him a

with Ishioka. In fact, Singh has worked with

lingering embarrassment in Japan. The

her on all his movies. From Singh’s debut

political controversy erupted when they were

movie The Cell, The Fall, to Immortals, which

filming. The team faced escalating pressure,

marks a milestone for Singh, Ishioka created

followed by the problems of casting, shooting

the ultimate bizarre, provocative and striking

sites, etcetera. But Eiko was unflappable.

dreamscapes. “From the moment I worked

Despite the social disapproval, she continued

with Eiko, there was no other,” said Singh.

her work.

“There was no going back if you wanted something fantastic.”

To best dramatize Mishima’s life, in the studio shoot, Ishioka built a small Golden Pavilion

Singh gave Ishioka the most freedom to

model, which was a legendary edifice located

realize what she conceived. “Tarsem as

in Kyoto and was also a symbol of Mishima’s

a director has given me guidance,” said

spiritual world. Different from the real one,

Ishioka. “I feel like I have a freedom to build

Ishioka used gold fabric to cover the set walls

ideas based on his guidance. Hollywood is a good example of dictatorship. Hierarchy is very important. It doesn’t matter if I am working under a general and I say ‘I don’t like it, I don’t like it, I don’t like it.’ He should be

Snow White played by Lilly Collins in the movie Mirror Mirror

Tarsem and I find a consensus. Mostly it’s a success.” In 2012, Ishioka received a posthumous

and a swan headpiece, they subtly revealed

offer – Singh’s Mirror Mirror, starring Julia

the characters’ personalities and deeply

Roberts and Lily Collins. She made a

impressed the audience.

daunting number of surrealistic costumes for the movie – over 400, another 600 altered

Behind the scenes, Ishioka had been

and rented, not to mention those masks,

undergoing chemotherapy, but her intense

jewelry and tricornes. Although some were

focus and productivity were still astonishing.

not that comfortable for the actors, like

"You would never have known. She only had

Snow White’s ball gown with swan wings

two speeds - full throttle and stop. We never had to wait for costumes. Her work kept her

able to carry on with his own vision. Luckily,

alive – it was her reason for being." Singh recalled. Unfortunately, Ishioka never saw the finished movie.

Brain Songs Editor: Tao Li Illustration: Zhiwen Tang

Diane Arbus: Seeing the Unseen Text: Tao Li

An Allan Arbus 8*10 film test on Diane, circa 1949. Image courtesy of The Estate of Diane Arbus.

I really believe there are things nobody would see if I didnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t photograph them. â&#x20AC;&#x201C; Diane Arbus

She was a great humanist photographer who was at the forefront of a new kind of photographic art. Diane Arbus is undoubtedly one of

then reversed her position. The images were

America’s best-known controversial

no “good”. Her art, as she said, was not doing

photographers of the 20th century. Her

it for her anymore.

life was as intense and complicated as her photographs were powerful and path-

Shortly after this about-face, Arbus died. She

breaking. It's over 40 years since this

was found on the evening of July 28, 1971, by

legendary photographer took her own

her mentor, and lover, Marvin Israel, who had

life, but her images continue to prove the

failed to reach her by phone. She wanted to

predatory nature of camera.

die. There had been no previous attempt of

Diane Arbus, Untitled (4) 1970-71. Image courtesy of The Estate of Diane Arbus.

any kind – no self-harm behaviour, no suicide One of Arbus’s first photographs was of

“rehearsal”, as one often finds in such cases.

a dog – a big mutt at twilight: “It was very

In her appointment book from July 26, she had

illusion and reality, identity and appearance.

haunting,” Arbus said, “He would come

written: “Last Supper.” Maybe, she pursued a

“She was a great humanist photographer

and just stare at me in what seemed a very

resurrection, like Christ.

who was at the forefront of a new kind of photographic art.” says Sandra S Philips,

mythic way. He did not bark, scratch or lick.

curator of photography at MoMA.

All he did was witness.” She didn’t think he

“My favourite thing is to go where I’ve never

liked her. But she took a photo of him at the

been.” Arbus once said. This is the opening

same.

sentence of An Aperture Monograph, which

The experience of viewing photographs by

images which looked like art, stated a point

appeared the year after her suicide. In the

Arbus is not easily forgotten. Famous for

of view, or represented us things the way we

One of Arbus’s last photographs was of the

same year, there was a retrospective of

photographing society’s margins, she was

wished they were. For Arbus, the beauty of

mentally retarded, whom she found “the

her work at MoMA (Museum of Modern Art)

always working at the very limit of her comfort

the photograph sprung from the subject itself.

strangest combination of grown-up and child”

in New York, drawing 7.25 million visitors.

zone. Her art was a way of dealing with the

Her square, black-and-white images make us

she had ever seen. Many of the shots are

Arbus’s ‘contemporary anthropology’ –

forbidden penetratingly and publicly. As she

unconsciously question not just her intentions

Halloween-themed, so her subjects wear

portraits of children, carnival performers,

said, it was a sin that she confessed to the

for looking at what critic Susan Sontag called

costumes and masks. They stand in pairs or

couples, families, nudists, transvestites,

“people who are pathetic, pitiable, as well

groups headed for some uncanny rite. At first

prostitutes, eccentrics, and celebrities –

as repulsive”, but also our own, the human

Arbus was fascinated by these subjects and

stands as an allegory of postwar America

complexities.

kept on photographing them for years. But she

and a description of the relationship between

world. She was not interested in creating

It is like the sinking Titanic…my whole life is there…I am strangely alone although people are all around. They keep disappearing. There’s the mature peaceful girl on the left, the serious girl on the right, and the smile one in the middle. It is one of the relatively rare examples in which Arbus’s response to the photograph is on record. “Triplets remind

Diane Arbus. A young man in curlers at home on West 20th Street, N.Y.C. 1966. Image courtesy of The Estate of Diane Arbus.

me of myself when I was an adolescent,” she says, “Lined up in three images: daughter,

Arbus is a freak herself in some essential

sister, bad girl, with secret lusting fantasies,

way. She loved these subjects, recognised

each with a tiny difference.”

them and kept close relationship with them.

Born in New York in 1923, Arbus was the

These were people who had passed some

daughter of an upper-middle-class Jewish

supreme tests in life, who had answered a

family which owned a Fifth Avenue clothing

It is Arbus’s great talent that she did not

hard conundrum, solved a possibly soul-

store. She came from wealth yet dreamed

romanticise her subjects once she found

breaking riddle. They were, in Arbus’s eyes,

of throwing it away, finding it humiliating.

t h e m , o r, m o r e a c c u r a t e l y, o n c e s h e

“anonymously famous.” She saw herself in

Starting as a fashion photography assistant of her ex-husband Allan Arbus, she worked

So Arbus settled on the real thing, which

for Esquire, Glamour, Vogue, Harper's

was fashion’s perfect antithesis – weirdos,

Bazaar, but then she realised fashion as

extremes, oddities – the “freaks”. Those

subject gradually made her frustrated,

things which weren’t said, weren’t seen and

artistically unsatisfactory. She told her brother

weren’t accepted in public became the motif

in 1961, “I been gloomy. Fashion… felt a little

of her life and art: The Backwards Man in his

like an obituary…” Fashion was a masking of

hotel room; Stripper with bare breasts sitting

reality, making things look prettier than they

in her dressing room; A young man in curlers

really were.

at home on West 20th Street; Dominatrix with a kneeling client; Russian midget friends in a living room on 100th Street; A naked man being a woman, etc.

them. They were partly her.

found her subjects she acknowledged

In 1963, Arbus shot “Triplets in Their

renowned photograph of a “Child with a Toy

their complexity. Take, for example, her Hand Grenade in Central Park”. The boy

Bedroom”. The image is, at first glimpse,

made faces for the camera. He smiled and

prosaic. Three girls sit on a single bed in the

postured, joked and yelled. He looks quite

center of the frame and look directly at the

normal. However the image Arbus kept belied

camera. But what slowly registers as your

the normality – the boy’s face distorted into

eyes linger over the scene is the sense that

an angry-seeming moue. His suspender flap

these are not three girls but just one. They wear the same clothes and white hair bands and sleep in identical – looking their beds. Their faces, however, assert difference.

She says, “It is like the sinking Titanic… my whole life is there…I am strangely alone although people are all around. They nothing back. They further intensified her

keep disappearing.” This dream is another

awareness of conflicts revolve around self,

mystery. Her life is on fire and sinking at the

conflicts that had always been present but

same time.

not consciously so. Richard Avedon who was close to Arbus In 1959, Arubs wrote down a dream in her

was one of the few at her funeral. “I wish I

notebook, one she repeated in 1971 for an

could be an artist like Diane,” he said. “Oh,

Artform spread titled, “five photographs by

no you don’t,” snapped fellow New York

Diane Arbus.” Like many dreams, this one

photographer Frederick Eberstadt.

tells of incontestable psychological reality. The setting is a hotel. Her grandmother is there. She has no clue how to behave.

Diane Arbus. Triplets in Their Bedroom, N.J. 1963. Image courtesy of The Estate of Diane Arbus.

hangs off his shoulder. His empty left hand

big in me at the time, to be accepted and

clutches arthritically. His bony knees bulge.

paid attention to. I was not directed by Arbus to pose, but there was a collusion of some

It isn’t common that Arbus’s child sitters say

kind. She sought out her own heart in people

something about their experiences long after

but she peeled away the wrong thing.”

the shooting. The kid currently lives with his wife and two children in California. “I have to

Arbus’s death is a mystery. It is always

say, Arbus felt a special empathy with that kid

a temptation, in the life of an artist who

– with me,” he recalls, “My childhood was not

suicides, to scan the art for clues. The art

a comfortable one. I was a troubled boy.” He

had temporarily stopped stimulating and

continues, “There is sadness in her that she

inspiring her. She was thwarted. Her subjects

also saw in me, this need, which was very

at the time, the mentally retarded, gave her

Diane Arbus. Child with a toy hand grenade in Central Park, N.Y.C. 1962. Image courtesy of The Estate of Diane Arbus.

Quirks Editor: Ding Ding & Tao Li Photographer: Hung-Chun Wang Stylist: Nan Zhang Make-up: Izzy Cammareri Model: Eva Chen, Ellery Chase & Gareth Chow

Dress: Tyler Alexander Steele Seraphin

Everyone is born with a clean slate. We grow up and experience life; we learn and feel the emotions - fear, worry, sadness, anger, anxiety, and every terrible thing in between. Some choose to deny, some choose to hide, and some twist their minds. Deep down to the blood and bone, we all have quirks held inside.

Ellery Chase – Top & Dress: Anka Lau Gareth Chow – Top & Trousers: Taylor Leung

Top: Taylor Leung (left) Dress: Xinyuan Xu (right)

Garment: Gregory Grey (left) Dress: Xinyuan Xu (right)

Ellery Chase – Top & Dress: Anka Lau Gareth Chow –Suit, shirt & trousers: model’s own

Dress: Hannah Danielle Brooks

Dress: Lieu Le

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