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ISSUE 64 Kembra Pfahler Fumi Nagasaka Laurie Simmons Chopova Lowena Izumi Miyazaki Claire Barrow Renell Medrano Tali Lennox Joy Labinjo

TRANCE Euphoria, High Times and Freaky Prescriptions

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EACH DROP IS AN ODYSSEY

Is there anything more boring than hearing people talk about their experience with drugs? I can’t think of a time when I’ve enjoyed someone telling me about clubbing on MDMA or that month they spent taking LSD at uni. These stories often feel rambling and seem merely to signify the need to impress, but they also make sense. Part of the joy in talking about drugs is showing off, but part of it is also about the instinct to talk about our experiences through the lens of something exciting and otherworldly – not just through the filter of our mundane day-to-day lives. The ability to tell someone that you’ve been on a trip or done something marks you out. Drugs have obviously always been a huge part of society and culture, but recently they’ve crossed over into the mainstream via micro-dosing, cannabis edibles and a boom in people openly talking about pill-popping. This whole idea of ‘dosing’ feels like the perfect way to explore art, culture and a bit of fashion, too, which is why we decided to theme this issue around it. For artists, this takes many shapes. In Eat Me, Sirin Kale looks at how the humble mushroom has been an icon of the drug scene since the Sixties. In Orishas, we sent SLEEK Contributing Editor Camila Falquez to Cuba with Fashion Editor Lorena Maza where they documented four days in Havana with the yoruba religion. As with lots of modern trends, this one comes with its problems. While CBD capsules have become a point of conversation – an apparently essential means to de-stressing from burnout – it seems wrong that brands with huge marketing budgets and big Instagram followings are being championed as changing the way we deal with anxiety just for selling legal weed-based products. This seems especially unjust when, for decades, people have been prosecuted for monetising marijuana with prison sentences and criminal records that are rarely expunged. In her piece Up In Smoke, Kieran Yates examines the booming weed industry’s class double bind. Elsewhere, Renell Medrano shot herself for our digital cover – and what a cover it is. Medrano’s work is so different from the portrait photography we’re used to seeing, and as writer and picture editor, Gem Fletcher, finds out in her piece, p36, it’s inspired “by the people and places that shaped her life”. In her interview with Laurie Simmons, writer Fanny Singer looks at a stark new turn in the artist’s career, one which has led to her photographing her two children, Lena and Cyrus Grace Dunham, while in her longform interview with Kembra Pfahler (p48), writer and actress, Stoya, talks to the artist about the SLEEK 64

delicate balance of acting out rebellion through her art. A couple of weeks later, Pfahler spent the day with New York-based photographer Fumi Nagasaka in Greenpoint, Brooklyn, wearing her favourite designer, Rick Owens, for our cover. Our cabinet series is expanding into a provocative section in which we give free rein to someone we think is doing interesting work. This issue, we’re featuring an exclusive series of new illustrations by Claire Barrow, p194, about a woman trying to get to a club in a trashed city overrun by the real life casualties of the internet. In her column, Chris Kraus writes an honest piece about how drugs have affected her and the people around her. “I took heroin once,” she tells us, “It was so good I knew not to do it again.” Maybe she has a point. In this era of numerous ‘ethical dosage options’, perhaps it’s time to practice some restraint? Grace Banks Editor-in-Chief 10

Photo: Fumi Nagasaka

Editor’s Letter

SLEEK 64

18 Chris Kraus Column

SLEEK 64 Winter 2019

14 Imprint 15 Contributors

FEATURES Image: Robin F. Williams

BEGINNINGS

Cover: Kembra Pfahler is shot in Greenpoint, Brooklyn, by Fumi Nagasaka wearing full Rick Owens

Contents

10 Editor’s Letter

62 Thebe Magugu

56 Chopova Lowena

“My 16-year-old self’s dreams are now coming to fruition so right now I feel unstoppable”

“We try to make sure everything is either sourced from vintage fabrics or recycled”

High Society: Is CBD problematic? TRANCE RESEARCH

20 Portion Control

70 Up in Smoke

22 Representation in front and behind the scenes

74 Eat Me

28 Incoming Joy Labinjo, Izumi Miyazaki, BioGlitz

36 Renell Medrano

FEATURES

42 Laurie Simmons “I can get really lost, go down the rabbit hole”

Kembra Pfahler: “It’s called a poetic identity” 12

Photo: Fumi Nagasaka

“I want the world to know there is beauty in everything”

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78 Orishas

Image: Bjarne Melgaard

26 Melancholy and Nostalgia

FASHION 96 Glossed

108 Move For Me

120 Country Talk

Photography by Adrienne Raquel Styling by Alexander Julian

Photography by Felicity Ingram Styling by Lorena Maza

Photography by Carly Scott Styling by Luci Ellis

CABINET

194

185 Olga de la Iglesia

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Claire Barrow: A dystopian cartoon by the artist and designer 13

Imprint CEO / Group Editorial Director/Publisher Christian Bracht (V.i.S.d.P.) cb@sleekmag.com

Editor-in-Chief Grace Banks grace@sleekmag.com

Art Direction and Design Lorenzo L Pradelli design@sleekmag.com

Creative Editor (Maternity Leave) Victoria GisborneLand victoria@sleekmag.com

Acting Creative Editor Marta Wilkosz marta.w@sleekmag.com

Fashion Editor Lorena Maza

lorena@sleekmag.com

Digital Editor Kathryn O’Regan

kathryn@sleekmag.com

Senior Writer Angela Waters

angela@sleekmag.com

Junior Designer Keano Anton Interns Sanja Grozdanic Hannah Hummel

Advertising and Marketing Senior Vice President Sales and Marketing Shawn Thomson shawn@sleekmag.com

Creative Producers Emma Hughes emma@sleekmag.com

Finja Rosenbaum finja@sleekmag.com

Staff Copy Editor Huw Nesbitt Proofreader Luke Troynar Publisher’s Assistant Franziska Rutkowski franziska@sleekmag.com

Contributing Editors Chris Kraus Francesca Gavin Annie Collinge Arvida Byström Micaiah Carter Jeni Fulton

Contributors Cynthia Baligan Philippe Baligan Claire Barrow Sarah Blais Gina Blondell

Paloma Brytscha Max D’orsogna Olga de la Iglesia Gillian Doyle Luci Ellis Derek Ercolano Camila Falquez Caroline Fayette Alice Finney Raisa Flowers Ivanna Heredia Chiao Li Hsu Felicity Ingram Susanna Jonas Alexander Julian Stefanie Klopf Xavier Mas Hiroshi Matsushita Caroline Mauger Marina Melentieva Fumi Nagasaka Miren Oller Antje Peters Jose Quijano Adrienne Raquel Max Rempe Andrita Renee Stini Röhrs Carly Scott Leopold Thun Li Ya Wen Christian Werner Robin F. Williams Peter Wolff Wilfried Wulff Stephania Yepes Lina Zangers

Special Thanks Home Agency Museum Brandhorst Amada Castro MadebySalonlöwin Fashion Shayra Gonzales Brenner Grill The Wall Group

SLEEK accepts no liability for any unsolicited material whatsoever. Opinions contained in the editorial content are those of the contributors and not necessarily those of the publishers of SLEEK. Any reproduction in whole or in part without written permission is strictly prohibited. SLEEK magazine and sleekmag.com are published by H&B Publishing GmbH, Alexanderstrasse 7, 10178 Berlin, Germany, info@sleekmag.com

SLEEK 64

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Contributors STOYA

Stoya is an American writer, actor and pornographer. An advocate for sex workers’ rights and a pioneer for change within the porn industry, Stoya interviews Kembra Pfahler for SLEEK 64 about the progression of modern approaches to sex. Alongside a career in acting, directing and podcasting, Stoya published her book, Philosophy, Pussycats and Porn last year.

OLGA DE LA IGLESIA Barcelona-based Olga de la Iglesia is a New York and Barcelona based photographer photographer and an art director whose work has featured in Vogue Italy, Ignant, The Wing and Dazed. For this issue, we commissioned Olga to create an art meets fashion still life (p 184). Although her photography has garnered many fans, de la Iglesia describes herself as an ‘imager’ rather than a photographer - a mood you can feel in this editorial.

GEM FLETCHER

RENELL MEDRANO

Art director and writer Gem Fletcher’s creative work centres on photography and modern image-making. For this issue, she interviews Renell Medrano about the life of a female photographer in the digital age and how she’s become one of the most lauded photographers of our time. Fletcher writes for Creative Review and is also a photo director at Riposte Magazine.

Photographer Renell Medrano has photopgraphed everyone from Blood Orange to Jeff Goldblum. In 2014, she was awarded The New York Times Lens Blog Award, and has since become one of the most respected photographers of her generation, shooting covers and editorials for Office, Wonderland and The Fader. For this issue of SLEEK, she shoots her own self-portrait and talks about her recent exhibition, Peluca.

HELEN JENNINGS

FUMI NAGASAKA

Helen Jennings is a London-based writer, consultant and curator whose specialisms include African fashion and visual arts. As well as her position as co-founder and editorial director of Nataal, the leading magazine celebrating contemporary African creativity, Jennings has written for AnOther, Dazed, Vogue and the BBC. In this issue, she speaks to the LVMH Prize-winning designer, Thebe Magugu. SLEEK 64

On pages 48–55, you can find Fumi Nagasaka’s shoot with musician, artist and feminist, Kembra Pfahler. Born in Japan and raised in New York, Nagasaka is famous for her photobooks, the latest of which, Teenage Riot (2018), documents the quiet rebelliousness of girlhood. Having spent the last decade documenting youth culture, Fumi’s work has been reviewed by Dazed, AnOther Magazine, Office, T Magazine and Vogue Korea. 15

BEGINNINGS 18 CHRIS KRAUS COLUMN: ON DRUGS 20 PORTION CONTROL 22 THE NEW BLACK VANGUARD 26 TALI LENNOX 28 INCOMING: JOY LABINJO IZUMI MIYAZAKI BIOGLITZ 16

BEGINNINGS

On getting high with strangers, how California’s tech bros took over the cannabis industry, and heroin, once Chris Kraus column:

Illustration by Li Ya Wen

BEGINNINGS

I got high for the first time in a car thing better at home so we decided outside the Blue Sky Diner in to go. Bonnie and I sat in the back. We Stratford, Connecticut. I used to tried not to cough when they passed hitchhike there after school, across the first joint. Within minutes we felt the drawbridge in Devon. something lift off, the world spun, and The diner was three or four miles Bonnie and I exchanged deep looks from the elementary school, set into a and grinned when the song Hooked nook alongside a tangle of highways, on a Feeling came on. small factories and warehouses. My friend Ken Jordan co-foundBikers from Bridgeport hung out ed Evolver, a hub for the global there in the late afternoon and this consciousness movement, and The was the diner’s main attraction for me. Alchemist’s Kitchen, a state-of-theI looked for the feeling that something art botanical dispensary in New York could happen, and nothing could that offers healing elixirs, tinctures happen at home. Usually I went to the and balms. Located on Bleecker diner alone, but this one time I talked Street and Bowery, the kitchen offers my friend Bonnie into coming with workshops, discussions and classes me. Two heavily made-up 13-year-old and serves as a community centre girls in short skirts talking and for a global consciousness movelaughing in a front booth alone. It ment that reimagines humanity’s didn’t take long for a couple of guys connection to earth. Although the to slide into the booth. Mid-twenties, kitchen doesn’t host ayahuasca white, just regular guys, not hippies, ceremonies, the shamanistic linenot students, unless they went to the ages of indigenous people informs community college nearby. They everything that they do. Ken has weren’t wearing Hells Angels gear but taken ayahuasca many times, and I they seemed to be friends with some asked him if it is a plant or a drug. of the bikers, perhaps they were “Personally,” he told me, “I don’t find selling them drugs. What were our the word ‘drug’ very helpful. It sugnames, they asked, what were we up gests there’s a static state of consento? We made up fake names and told sus ‘normalcy’ you inhabit when you them we were seniors at the high aren’t ‘altered’ by substances. But school up on the Post Road. Did we actually, if you pay attention, your want to get high? They had some state is changing constantly dependdope in the car, but they had someing on what you eat, how you breathe, 18

the sleep you’ve had, the people you interact with, whether it’s sunny or raining outside. The last time I ate a Big Mac it definitely altered my system – it made me feel like shit – but is McDonald’s a drug dealer? I’m a tea drinker. I have a green tea in the morning to sharpen my mind before work, and when I want to sharpen my connection to the invisible, I drink ayahuasca.” Cannabis is now legal or permitted in 33 US states. I canvassed in 2010 for Proposition 19 to decriminalise cannabis cultivation in California and it dramatically failed. People’s lives were being destroyed by harsh felony convictions for small sales and even possession. Once, I rode in a cab with a guy whose house was impounded when he was found guilty of growing five or six cannabis plants. Seven years later, cannabis is completely legal in California, and the MedMen stores are as sleek and as cold as the Apple stores. The cannabis industry is run by the same kind of young, white business guys who dominate finance and tech. I took heroin once. It was so good I knew not to do it again. Addiction is a form of possession. In Elena Ferrante’s The Days of Abandonment, the narrator is possessed by despair for months after her husband leaves her and their children; in Dostoevsky’s Crime and Punishment, the former civil servant Semyon Marmeladov is possessed by alcoholism until death, and his family ends up in the street. Dostoevsky was addicted to gambling. My partner, Philip Valdez, is an addiction specialist. He’s known people to undertake treatment as often as 20 or 30 times. No one knows when or how an addiction will stop, although sometimes it does. “Those who are lucky survive to try once again,” he explains. “The unlucky – and there are many – die.” Carl Jung observed that addiction can only cease after someone experiences a psychic break. But what will precipitate this? My friend Nika goes to a sweat lodge that occurs once a month in LA near the beach. At the sweat lodge, she met a Yuman man who teaches others to sing traditional Yuman songs used in ceremonies and in healing. Each Tuesday night, the group gathers and sings. They are possessed by their own breath, rhythm and voice. BEGINNINGS

I canvassed in 2010 for Proposition 19 to decriminalise cannabis cultivation in California and it dramatically failed. People’s lives were being destroyed by harsh felony convictions for small sales and even possession

Portion Control

ROBIN F. WILLIAMS, Side Eye Tie Dye, 2019. Acrylic and oil on canvas, 121.9 x 91.4 cm. Courtesy the artist and P·P·O·W, New York

Text by Anupa Mistry

BEGINNINGS

I knew I didn’t want to move to New York City. That ambivalence hardened into numbing anxiety by the time, two months into the move, that I signed a lease and flew my cat over from Toronto. It would be easy to blame the city itself, but the truth is the problem was me: I wasn’t good at listening to that timid inner voice – you know, the one that gently nudges a sensible solution forward only to be shouted down by the furore of your ego. That voice of reason knew that the rapid pace and workaholism of a tech job in the big city was the last thing I needed. Having mostly recovered from the subsequent burnout, I can see that, looking back. But after a decade spent slamming my head on the glass ceiling of Toronto a change was in order. By the end of my first summer in New York, I was taking small doses of cannabis edibles daily to cope with the switch in pace. That is, I was microdosing: ingesting a fraction of an amount of a substance (typically a psychedelic such as LSD or mushrooms) in order to achieve a perceptible, but restrained, experience. A friend had introduced me to a neat and simple product: chocolate-covered espresso beans, each containing just 5 mg of Tetrahydrocannabinol. These weren’t old school edibles, concocted by enterprising stoners and home cooks fretting over vats of weed butter that got you zooted for a full 24 hours with one bite. Instead, beaning – as my friends and I jokingly referred to these very mellow trips – had a more practical result: a pleasant reduction in bodily tension and an intense sense of presence, with none of the loopiness associated with the edibles of my youth. Lights were softer, smells less dank, subway delays less infuriating. Minor work disruptions became mildly amusing, and I became a more engaged co-worker: lucid, friendly, expressive. Menstrual cramps were no longer debilitating. On Saturday mornings, I’d get slightly lifted and meander the grocery store aisles, purchasing ingredients for elaborate charcuterie platters. Extreme weed heads might roll their eyes at it, but the barely-there lift that I got from the half dose was a revelation that verged on therapeutic. Some days, the bean managed my anxiety so well I could slide by the cops standing sentry over Times Square with machine guns on my way to and from the office and pretend it was all normal. “The early research was always high-dose,” said James Fadiman, a renowned psychedelics researcher and author of The Psychedelic Explorer’s Guide, in a 2016 Huffington Post interview. “The fact that you could take psychedelics as a microdose didn’t occur to people. Dr Albert Hofmann, who discovered LSD, had been microdosing for at least the last couple of decades of his life. And of course, for thousands of years, indigenous people have been using low doses of mind-altering substances as well.” After administering self-study evaluations to hundreds of people, Fadiman’s general

conclusion is that microdosing rebalances people. “They’ve improved their relationship to their body – or their body has improved their relationship to them.” I’ve found this to be true, and I’d also add that microdosing has changed my relationship with drugs as well. Getting high used to be a recreational pastime in my teens, an opportunity to trip out and experience maximum sensation, but now I use substances with more regularity and to lesser extremes. In addition to regularly microdosing with cannabis using edibles and tinctures (a great alternative for those who want to cut back on smoking), I’ve also self-administered very low doses of acid and mushrooms. Getting high is no longer about feeling out of control of my body, especially while experiencing anxiety and depression – conditions that are now more common and acute – but rather more in control. My peers were coping using pharmaceuticals such as Klonopin and Xanax, but I was able to find some physiological refuge in plant-based substances. The public narrative around microdosing has shifted over the last five years. Initially touted as a ‘creativity enhancer’ with the ability to improve focus by the productivity obsessives of Silicon Valley, microdosing is now a wellness trend embraced by everyone from harried office workers to busy mums, particularly as an alternative to antidepressants and as a deterrent to alcohol abuse. A study published in PLOS ONE journal earlier this year noted that there has been very little scientific research into microdosing, and that while drug studies over the years have “consistently found that psychedelics are among the least harmful substances, with far less personal and societal risks than legal drugs such as alcohol or tobacco”, research is still needed to determine whether chronic low-dose exposure involves still unknown risks. Contemporary political trends in Western democracies across North America and Europe might be considered a risk factor for chronic anxiety, fatigue and depression. The rise of fascist and regressive political leaders, increased militarisation of security forces, climate crisis inaction and the commodification of our personal lives via social media, feels like the perfect situation in which it’s necessary to find tension relief. In Canada, where I now live once again, marijuana decriminalisation has exposed the extent to which drug re-education is required so that people might consider starting – and perhaps staying – on low and slow doses. I’m not a scientist. I believe governments need to invest in more drug-positive research rather than operating from a stance of pure deterrence. But I am a person who began living in the most economically disparate city in the world’s richest country just months after the most corrupt US president in history took office. Microdosing wasn’t my way of escaping the reality of the situation I found myself in, but of finding myself – and as a result, my own agency – within that calamity.

Journalist Anupa Mistry on how microdosing small quantities of cannabis helped her move to New York, cope with Trump, confront climate change, and get over a work-related burnout without escaping reality BEGINNINGS

Melancholy and Nostalgia

Raised in London and now based in New York, Tali Lennox is tackling grief by depicting the city’s eccentric personalities in magical, phantasmagoric scenes and costumes Almost all of her portraits have elaborate histories; the titles come from Lennox’s poetry and her desire to explore things she’s never known, like turn-of-the century spectacles. “A lot of the show is about the circus, which is the ultimate motif of lightness and darkness,” Lennox says. “It’s the idea that a lot of pain has gone into something that is supposed to make people laugh.” Different types of pain are central to her work. She cites mourning after the death of her boyfriend, Ian Jones, in 2015 as a major turning point in her practice. “So much of why I like to capture the past is because when you go through the profoundness of tragedy you get baffled by what is left,” she says. “Is there energy there or just an empty shell of something that once was. Wanting to capture a time that is no longer – I think that’s what grief is.” Fantasy is one of the ways in which Lennox takes dark emotions and attempts to find beauty in them. She mixes dreamlike pastels with moody jewel tones to create magical backdrops for her subjects and incorporates elements of mythology, which add layers of meaning to her narratives. “I like to tap into how it is when someone is a child,” she says. “Monsters and things that scare us are often so close to the things that make us excited.”

The vampire fangs, which can also be seen in Beneath Eternities Loom (2019), are a recurring theme for Lennox. The elongated canine teeth, usually placed on smiling faces, represent eternity and not wanting to get old. Masks are another motif that feature heavily in her work, often in the form of heavy Leven-like makeup. The painter believes that people are generally more likely to be true to themselves when they are hiding who they are. “It’s like Halloween in New York, where everyone loses their mind because they are free in a sense,” she says. From time to time, Lennox also likes to conceal her own personality, too. Although she has settled into her identity as an image-maker, she has not sworn off the occasional turn in front of the camera. At the moment she’s working on a project set in Manhattan’s iconic Chelsea Hotel, which the painter describes as a “skeleton of old New York”. She’s teaming up again with Leven to create a nostalgic photo series telling the story a carnival girl – using their similar features of fair skin and long dark hair, Lennox portrays the younger version while Leven embodies the character’s future. “Living in the past is a lonely place to be,” she says. “But it can also be a place where you can feel the most connected to yourself.”

TALI LENNOX, Seashell Song, 2019, oil on canvas, 30 x 30 inches. Courtesy Meredith Rosen Gallery

Text by Angela Waters

Tali Lennox knew she had found her muse when she saw black liner and a red lip – much like Bette Davis in a video of 77-year-old Linda Leven putting on makeup Whatever Happened to Baby Jane (1962). and covering her face with baby oil, a technique the New In the show, Leven is painted next to a similarly York artist uses herself to make her subjects extra shiny. pale-faced grinning vampire, who holds a music box Although more than 50 years her senior, Lennox sees a with a broken ballerina, a symbol of the dancer’s dreams that never materialised. Both characters hark back to a lot of herself in Leven, but she also sees a link to a Mid-Century style of leisure suiting, dressed as though melancholic nostalgia that drives her work. on the way to a tropical vacation. “There is a melancholia “She’s still an aspiring model,” the 26-year-old in playing dress up,” the artist says. “It’s this constant painter says. “She moved to New York when she was idea of the illusion of who we are and how we try to stay young to be a ballerina and never made it. But she has in our fantasy – but there is a beauty in that as well.” this kind of obsession with having her name known. Another subject in the exhibit is James Jimenez, Although she doesn’t want to be paid for shoots, her one condition is just that her name is put in the credits.” who appears in the work Karol’s Fortune (2019) looking weary as he divines the future from a deck of cards, Lennox went one better in her most recent dressed in colourful robes and a sheer waist corset. In exhibition, The Ballad of Linda Leven at Meredith Rosen Gallery in New York, centring her painting series real life, he is a friend of Lennox who she describes as around the New York starlet. Her work relies on a mix of “committed to living in the past” and filling his Queens portraiture and fantasy, but in Leven, she’s found a home with antiques to create an “Oscar Wilde Woncharacter that’s stranger than fiction. The former derland”. But in her work, his backstory is that of a ballerina is rail thin, accentuating the sharp angles of circus soothsayer worn down by his gift of reading her face with a pale foundation base, thick rings of strangers’ fortunes while being unable to read his own. BEGINNINGS

LEFT: TALI LENNOX, Beneath Eternities Loom, 2019, oil on linen, 18 x 14 inches. Courtesy Meredith Rosen Gallery

BEGINNINGS

RIGHT: TALI LENNOX, The Ballad of Linda Leven, 2019, oil on canvas, 36 x 26 inches. Courtesy Meredith Rosen Gallery

Representation in front and behind the scenes

Awol Erizku, Untitled Still Life, 2017. From The New Black Vanguard (Aperture, 2019). Copyright Awol Erizku

Following the release of his latest book, The New Black Vanguard, a study charting the rise of a new generation of black photographers and image makers, Antwaun Sargent tells Khalila Douze about how these artists are fighting racism and oppression while reimagining the medium’s possibilities

Micaiah Carter, Adeline in barrettes, 2018. From The New Black Vanguard (Aperture, 2019). Copyright Micaiah Carter

Text by Khalila Douze

BEGINNINGS

One third of the way into Antwaun Sargent’s book The New Black Vanguard is a particularly eye-catching image. An assortment of objects – orange lilies, a Rubik’s cube, a bust of Nefertiti, an effigy of King Tutankhamun – are delicately and intentionally placed together against a shamrock green backdrop. From the right, a black arm wearing a gold bangle extends into the frame holding a chipped ‘Shirley card’ (a test card used by photographers since the Forties named after a white female model whose skin tone was used to help configure film colours), putting it in conversation with the other artifacts. This methodical image is called Asiatic Lilies (2017), and was arranged and shot by Ethiopian-American photographer, Awol Erizku, a still yet striking example of what Sargent refers to as “visual activism”. In its subtle calculations, like the decision to paint Nefertiti (an Egytian queen) black, or to insert the broken card, Erizku’s image demonstrates a hyper sense of self-awareness. “Visual activism is consciously using the medium of art, of the camera to tell the truth,” Sargent explains during a BEGINNINGS

phone call in September. Erizku’s image is just one in an assortment of works compiled by Sargent to showcase and unpack a movement of new black imagemakers, like Tyler Mitchell (the first black photographer to shoot a cover for Vogue), Renell Medrano, Quil Lemons, Micaiah Carter and more, who are challenging the boundaries of our photographic consciousness and complicating the traditionally narrow perceptions of the black body. “We just assume that photographs don’t lie and they do,” Sargent claims, touching on the imperative to look at images as actively as the photographers creating them. It’s a message that sits at the core of why Sargent felt compelled to put this book together, published in October via Aperture.

Khalila Douze: When did you start thinking about the concept for this book, and how did it come to fruition? Antwaun Sargent: It really just came to fruition last year. Aperture, who do amazing photo books and have an amazing record in photography, asked me if I wanted to do a book [and] if so, what would it be? And I said

I think the most exciting thing happening in photography right now is the way that black photographers working globally are thinking about identity, beauty, about photography itself, and how they can reimagine the possibilities of the medium. Almost a year later, we have The New Black Vanguard.

KD: How did you decide which photographers and works you wanted to include, and how did you approach compiling their work? AS: In the book, you have a group of photographers who are not only thinking about art or fashion, they’re thinking about how those two mediums work together. There’s a deep sense of history of black portraiture in each of their photographs and each of their practices. I was looking at that, and one of the really interesting things is that this book is 300 odd pages long. It could have been 3,000 pages. There [are] just so many black photographers working in this way. For me, what it really came down to was having different points of view represented in the book. Across each of the portfolios, you get a different sense of a photographic concern. They’re grappling with concerns around 25

LEFT: JAMAL NXEDLANA, Late Leisure, 2019; from The New Black Vanguard (Aperture 2019). Copyright Jamal Nxedlana

LEFT: DANIEL OBASI, An Alien in Town, Ikayi, Lagos, Nigeria, 2018, from The New Black Vanguard (Aperture, 2019). Copyright Daniel Obasi

identity, power, the history of the medium, but also how to create the possibility for a future desire or future kind of thinking. These images are very much in the present, but they reference the past, and they look towards the future.

KD: There’s a part in the book where you talk about the potential for agency in fashion photography. What is it about the fashion image in particular that allows for that? AS: Fashion images are the most consumed images in our culture. We see them everywhere: billboards, on Instagram, on social media, in lifestyle magazines. I think that’s the language that most people come to understand the possibility of a photograph through. You get people, subjects and models and photographers really expressing their desires, and really thinking about the photograph as a site of construction. Particularly with fashion photography, you have so many people coming together to collaborate to make those images. From the hair people, to the makeup, to the fashion designer, to the photographer and also the editors. I thought that all of those decisions are really thoughtful, and those decisions are really concerted. The people are making conscious decisions to present the body, or notions of beauty, or notions of identity, BEGINNINGS

in a certain way. It can be a space of documentation, but the fashion image is a space where all other genres of photography collide. If you’re thinking of someone in the book, Nadine Ijewere, a British photographer – she loves a location. Her images of black women are often in these lush landscapes. In that image, you have landscape photography colliding with fashion photography, colliding with portrait photography, [and] all of these kinds of ideas around genres, and the mixing of genres, happens all the time in a fashion image.

KD: What do you think the static image in particular allows us to communicate? AS: The static image is the shorthand of our world. It’s how we read the world. Those static images are supposed to be documentations of our reality. I think that for so long they’ve been instruments of power. Until recently, we didn’t really see black photographers [or] images in mainstream magazines. We’ve had to create our own magazines: the Ebony’s, the Jet’s, The Black Photographers Annual, those magazines we’ve had to create ourselves because we needed to – so we can be able to control our images, control our representation. To quote the epigraph that begins the essay in the book, “Control

over the image is central to power.” The static image has been used to assert certain narratives to exclude certain people, to create stereotypes of certain people. This group of photographers have recognised the power of the photograph and are using that power to tell different stories, to widen the scope of what can be seen in a photograph and widen the scope of what black identity is. In this book, you really get a sense of the breadth and depth of blackness.

able to do this book, but I also do know that each institution is also responsible for the situation we’re in. It’s one thing to pat Vogue on the back for doing the Tyler Mitchell cover and for later giving [British photographer Nadine Ijewere] a cover, making her the first black woman to shoot for the cover of Vogue [last December]. I think those are wonderful things and they should be applauded and they are historic, but they aren’t enough, and they are definitely a little too late. How many other black people have shot the cover of Vogue in the last year? It’s not enough to do the one-and-done. Throughout history, we’ve seen the one-and-done. We’ve seen that be a function of white supremacy. Because these institutions are people, it is incumbent on us to still make demands. Beyoncé and Tyler, that was amazing and we needed that. After that moment, we were able to say, “Oh wait, there are a whole lot of other people deserving of a cover. There’s a whole lot of people that you overlooked.” It was a watershed moment. I’m black, I write about black artists, but it’s not just about black-

KD: Thinking about someone like Renell Medrano, who started by posting her images on Tumblr, how important is it that institutions like Aperture, Vogue or the art schools where some of these photographers have studied are recognising and publicising their work? How important is it that this happens instead of these artists creating their own platforms and disseminating their own images? AS: The representation that I’m after: Was anyone transformed? Were you moved to do something? That is the possibility of art. That is the power of art in general [to] inspire a better world. We are the institutions. Institutions are just people. I do appreciate what Aperture has done, and I do appreciate what Vogue is doing on their covers but also, the people need to change. I’m 100% grateful for being 26

ness. It is also about the representation of everybody else. You think about what happened in the civil rights era – I’m not equating what I’m doing, but I am drawing an analogy – it inspired the women’s movement, it inspired the gay rights movement. It was a chain reaction and I think that’s the best possible outcome. Although this project is amazing, and I always feel like I am running a race, we’re not moving fast enough. This book is an opportunity for us to reflect on the fact that this is great, but we have so much more work to do.

KD: In the book, photographer Shaniqwa Jarvis talks about being frustrated with getting pigeon-holed and only getting assignments to shoot black men (“I’d gladly speak about that side of me, but that’s now allowing me to fully represent who I am”). What do you think about that? AS: The capacity to understand the black body is very limited. What you don’t see is a universality with the black body and the black subject. If black photographers shoot black people, just like white photographers

shoot mostly white people, you never question whether the white photographer is going to be pigeon-holed? Why is that? Because of the status of the black body in our society. It’s not so much of a pigeon-hole, it’s “You’re fucking racist”. That’s what it is. What should be articulated is that the magazines only see you in a certain way, and that’s what needs to be challenged. I think Awol has a really great quote in the book where he says something like, “I’m trying to elevate blackness to the same universal standard as whiteness.” So, when you look at a black body no matter who you are, you can identify with it. The thing is we have to keep problematising. I don’t think we get anywhere if we say, “I don’t only shoot black people.” Why not? That’s who you are. Why can’t you take pride in that? Why can’t the black body also contain multitudes? That’s what we need to be pushing back on. There’s beauty, there’s power, there’s alienation in the black body. It contains it all.

LEFT: RUTH OSSAI, London 2017; from The New Black Vanguard (Aperture 2019). Copyright Ruth Ossai

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RIGHT: STEPHEN TAYO, Pedro Street, Lagos, Nigeria, 2019; from The New Black Vanguard (Aperture 2019). Copyright Stephen Tayo

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JOY LABINJO

JOY LABINJO, Talking into the night, 2019. Courtesy the artist and Tiwani Contemporary

USING PERSONAL PICTURES OF HER FAMILY AS INSPIRATION, THIS BRITISH-NIGERIAN PAINTER IS CASTING HER GAZE BACK TO PRODUCE IMAGES OF BLACK FIGURES IN EVERYDAY LIFE

“A lot of people have said that they get quite a warm feeling,” Joy Labinjo says when asked what the most common reaction to her large-scale oil paintings is. Working predominantly from found photos and images of her family, Labinjo’s paintings, composed from an earthy palette of cheery tangerine, crimson, chestnut and creamy yellow, are affecting in their familiarity. “People from the diaspora have said [my work] makes them think of their actual families and their home countries, and their lives growing up – it’s quite warming, it’s nice,” the 25-year-old British-Nigerian artist says. Born in Dagenham, Essex, Labinjo moved to Stevanage in Hertfordshire just outside of London when she was 10-yearsold, before relocating once she’d finished secondary education, to study fine art at the University of Newcastle. Moving away from London was a turning point for the artist and for her work – she became conscious of her skin colour in a way that she hadn’t been in the past. “It wasn’t like outright racism, but more like microaggressions … I was very aware that I was one of the few black people in a very white place,” she admits. These feelings were exacerbated after winning a fellowship to study a semester abroad at The University of Applied Arts in Vienna. Before this, she was making “traditional figurative paintings, mostly of the white figure”, but during her year abroad, she

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realised that she had made a conscious decision “not to make any work about being black out of fear of being labelled ‘the black one’”. Afterwards, she did a complete u-turn, writing her dissertation on the black British artists of the Eighties, discussing prominent figures like Lubaina Himid, Sonia Boyce, Maud Salter and Eddie Chambers. Through this, she realised that everything she was experiencing in terms of figuring out what her work would be about, they had also experienced. “From then on, I just had to

JOY LABINJO, Untitled, 2018. Courtesy the artist and Tiwani Contemporary

Text by Kathryn O’Regan

figure out a way to make work that was more true to myself … it took a while, but I figured out a way to express my truth,” the artist explains. Although she dabbled in sculpture, printmaking and video while at university, painting has always been Labinjo’s medium. “I like the fact that I’m fully in control. Once I’ve got my paint, paintbrushes and something to paint on, I’m not relying on anyone else to make my work. It’s just me,” she says. For Labinjo, who is now based in London, it was important that her work wouldn’t be outrightly political, even though she believes that “it’s always a bit politicised when you’re painting the black figure”. In a way, this is what led Labinjo to paint, as she says, “the black figure in everyday scenes, without any pretence or anything, just painting people as they are.” ‘Painting people as they are’ is a surprisingly moving way in which to view Labinjo’s work. Here, there are young girls in white poofy dresses with pink hairbands, a man sipping a cup of coffee in a gaudily-patterned shirt, people chatting in the kitchen or huddling together for a photo to be taken, sharing smiles on the bus. Labinjo’s everyday world is easily recognisable but made special through the clean certainty of her brushstrokes and the unique way in which she applies colour in smooth blocks of paint. Up-close, there is a jigsaw-like quality to her brightly-rendered studies. Currently exhibiting Our histories cling to us at the BALTIC Centre for Contemporary Art in Newcastle until February next year (its title

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comes from a TED talk by the Nigerian writer Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie and, according to the artist, references the idea of looking back through family photos, Instagram pictures and archival images), and fresh from showing at Frieze London in October, Labinjo is looking forward to taking a break. Having been working on this series of paintings since early 2017, she is also excited to take her work in a new direction in the future: “I’ve been doing this for nearly three years and I feel like I have concluded it,” she says. “I’ve learned a lot about painting through this series and now I’m ready to take what I’ve learnt and explore different areas. I’m not completely sure what that looks like yet. I just need some time to be in the studio without the pressure of exhibitions and to see what happens naturally.” While Labinjo is assured that whatever she makes next will most likely be based on photographs, too, for now, she hopes it will be more about the future than the past. “I just need to figure out how to do that,” she says.

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IZUMI MIYAZAKI A RISING STAR OF THE TUMBLR GENERATION, THE JAPANESE ARTIST REWRITES THE RULES OF SURREALISM THROUGH HER EXTRAORDINARY SELF-PORTRAITS

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yazaki initially felt at home showcasing her work on the Internet. After realising her passion for taking pictures at her high school photography club, Miyazaki opened a Tumblr account in 2012 and began publicly sharing her images. Existing outside of patriarchal art institutions, the microblogging platform gave her the opportunity to take back the gaze, providing a place where she could “find and prove” her “value and self-worth”. While studying Imaging Arts at the Musashino Art University in Tokyo, her account quickly garnered attention, and to date, the photographer has 14k followers on Instagram. Since then, she has learnt to use photography to “show” that she “loves [her]self and” to remind her that she’s beautiful. Alongside other female digital artists that she has exhibited with such as Juno Calypso and

Arvida Bystrom, Miyazaki is part of a growing community using photography to subvert artistic traditions. “I tend to regard what I want to do as more important than any other rule,” she muses. When asked who she is inspired by, Miyazaki is staunch: “My work isn’t inspired by any photographer in particular. I usually do completely what I want.” Doing what she wants has thus far paid off. This year, Mizayako collaborated with Valentino on its pre-Fall capsule collection, exhibited at Unseen Amsterdam and featured in VICE Magazine’s 2019 Photo Issue. Despite her distinctive style, it’s impossible to view Miyazaki’s work without acknowledging its surrealist roots. “I was never interested in art classes at school apart from when we were studying Surrealism,” she says. Her vivid use of colour, oneiric subject matter and whimsical compositions point to an appreciation of the genre. “I am really attracted to Surrealism because I get excited about what artists want to express,” she explains. Miyazaki says that her work is an attempt to “portray sadness or anger as something nice and funny”. Whether that’s through splitting her head in half, as in Fish (2015), or standing around a floating piece of broccoli, humour is an integral part of her practice. The comedic effects of Miyazaki’s work are twinned with sadness and loneliness. Her digital doctoring of images and carefully choreographed compositions draw attention to the camera’s ability to create a tableau, to manipulate visual truths. The results show happiness tinged with melancholy, and ask us to think about our own

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relationship to self-produced images as well as what it means to go through life under the guise of a facade. Though Miyazki’s self-portraits are humorous, she never smiles in them – a malaise widespread among her selfie-obsessed cohorts. “I think my artworks and my life have a strong connection,” she says of her creative process. “I tend to think about meaningless things during my daily life and these thoughts bring about interesting and stimulating ideas for creation.” In time to come, Miyazaki wishes to shoot Ten, a member of popular Chinese boy band Wayv, but for now, she is continuing to learn to accept “the mental and physical challenges” associated with being a photographer and endeavouring to “constantly collaborate” as she makes her own path.

Izumi Mizayaki, Sandwich, 2014. Courtesy the artist

A face framed by a crop of shiny black hair is sandwiched between two pieces of white bread. Peering out from between the slices, Izumi Miyazaki focuses her gaze on the camera. “Go on, laugh, I dare you,” she seems to be saying. Pan (2013) epitomises the photographer’s witty aesthetic: pho toshopped selfies are the bread and butter of her practice. “Self-portraits are the best way for me to create something. I’m not really any good with people,” the 25-year-old explains. Growing up in Japan, Miyazaki believes that she was ingrained with certain cultural customs, making it difficult for her to photograph others. “In Japan, I was educated on the importance of being humble,” she says. “As a photographer, I tend to find that this is a disadvantage. I used to have a big inferiority complex because of this.” Given her demeanour, it’s no surprise that Mi-

Izumi Mizayaki, Human, 2015. Courtesy the artist

Text by Alice Finney

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BIOGLITZ INTRODUCING THE BIODEGRADABLE GLITTER BRAND THAT STOLE THE SHOW AT NEW YORK FASHION WEEK

Text by Kathryn O’Regan

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power behind it, because it ignited conversations that I wouldn’t have had otherwise.” It was while working at Manufacture in New York, a production hub for fashion companies with a sustainable focus, that Gray started to think about the environmental problems caused by plastics, especially glitter, which is typically made from polyester. “Glitter has stayed under the radar for a longtime, even though it’s used in

toys, fabrics and cosmetics. It’s terrible for the environment, so I thought, ‘Why don’t we make it biodegradable?’” she says. Gray met with manufacturers in New Jersey who had been in the glitter-production business since the Thirties and Forties, asking them what they thought of her idea. “None of them really cared or had thought about it before,” she says. Eventually, they found manufacturing companies in the UK and Germany to make their eco-friendly product. While the organisation has some competitors, none of them are as art and fashion-focused as BioGlitz. “We’re kind of on our own now,” says Gray. But for its CEO, BioGlitz goes beyond just being sustainable. It’s about “helping people come out of their shell”, she says. BioGlitz rejects a lot of the ideas upheld by the traditional beauty industry “pushing people into believing that they need certain products and to look a certain way”. In contrast, BioGlitz wants to change that and tell people that, “it’s cool to wear crazy glitz, wear whatever you want,” Gray enthuses. Looking ahead, BioGlitz will be moving into textiles come Fashion Week next September. “We’re creating a bespoke House of Sustainable Shine, where we’ll be working one-on-one with brands to help them envision how they can bring shine to their collection,” reveals Gray. Towards the end of the conversation, Gray tells a story that makes it clear that for her, glitter is a neccesity, not an option. “A while back, I was in the desert and ran into some witches. Sounds funny

but anything is possible in California,” she says. “They told me that glitter or glitter-like substances have been used for thousands of years to reflect negative energy and evil spirits. For me, that is exactly how I feel when I wear it. Like-minded people talk to me and the wrong people go away. It brings people together and we can build an army of like-minded people with it.” BioGlitz’s slogan is ‘Shine Responsibly’ – and they’re not just talking in terms of using an environmentally friendly product. “We want people to feel good from the inside out, and you can’t do that if what you’re doing is negatively impacting the earth,” says Gray. “So, whether that’s glitter or sustainable embellishment or your attitude to wearing these things, it’s a mentality: to live responsibly, wear responsibly and shine responsibly.”

BOTH IMAGES BIOGLITZ, 2019. Video by Reference Frame. Directed by Ernest Davis and Wil Adamy. Courtesy BioGlitz

As the co-founder of a company producing glitter, Kentucky-born Saba Gray had just the childhood hobby you might expect – figure skating. “I grew up doing skating competitively and there’s a lot of glitter in that,” she says. But unlike the glitter and sequins that studded her skating costumes, her company, BioGlitz, makes biodegradable glitter produced from the pulp of eucalyptus trees. And in case you were wondering, it’s just as shiny as regular glitter but much softer in texture. So far, this autumn’s been a busy one for BioGlitz’s chief executive. In September, the brand’s products featured at RuPaul’s DragCon as well in a collection by LA’s Gypsy Sport at New York Fashion Week. To top things off, the festive season – the peak time for glitter – is only around the corner. According to Gray “all kinds of people” are buying their glitter pots. “We are all over the place really, people just love glitter!” Founded in 2015 with her friend Rebecca Richards, BioGlitz coincided with Gray’s move to New York from Louisville, Kentucky, her hometown. Prior to this, she associated glitter with her figure skating days: “I actually really disliked glitter. I thought it was only about being girly.” In New York, however, Gray realised it could be “so much more than that. It can be chic or scary and still fairy-like”. She began wearing more of it and was surprised by the reaction it received. “On the subways at night, I noticed that it really sparked conversations. I found myself speaking to people that I wouldn’t normally as they asked me things like, ‘What’s that shiny stuff on your face?’” Often, these strangers would ask Gray to apply glitter to their own faces: “It could be a whole family or an older woman or an artist on a train. I realised that glitter had this natural

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FEATURES FEATURES 36 36 RENELL RENELL MEDRANO MEDRANO 42 42 LAURIE LAURIE SIMMONS SIMMONS "I"I CAN CAN GET GET REALLY REALLY LOST, LOST, GO GO DOWN DOWN THE THE RABBIT RABBIT HOLE" HOLE" 48 48 KEMBRA KEMBRA PFAHLER PFAHLER "TO "TO QUALIFY QUALIFYAS AS IF IFYOU'RE YOU'RE AN AN ARTIST, ARTIST,YOU YOU HAVE HAVE TO TO BE BE PRACTICALLY PRACTICALLYWILLING WILLING TO TO DIE" DIE" 56 56 CHOPOVA CHOPOVA LOWENA LOWENA 62 62 THEBE THEBE MAGUGU MAGUGU "MY "MY 16-YEAR-OLD 16-YEAR-OLD SELF'S SELF'S DREAMS DREAMS ARE ARE NOW NOW COMING COMING TO FRUITION" FRUITION" TO 3434

Renell Medrano:

Having made her name through intimate portraits of fellow New Yorkers, the 27-year-old Bronx photographer is synching the worlds of art and fashion, exploring her subjects’ vitality and flaws

Text by Gem Fletcher

“I want the world to know there is beauty in everything, in all people” FEATURES

Photography is Renell Medrano’s primary mode of communication and has been since she was 14. “Honestly, photography has been everything I wanted to do since I was a kid. I use to steal my mom’s point-and-shoot and take it to school to document my friends. I just felt like that was my voice.” Now, at 27, the medium is her way of responding to the world. Blurring the lines between documentary and fashion, she’s using photography to connect, celebate and rework the power dynamics in popular culture. Medrano’s work is deeply personal. Informed by the people and places that have shaped her life, both past and present, she blends her unique take on beauty with real-life circumstances. The textural quality of her photographs recalls the loving gaze of Liz Johnson Artur’s Nineties documentation of black Britain, and the colour play of William Eggleston. Unlike her peers, she’s not interested in limiting her vision to the highlights reel. Flaws and imperfections inspire her. She’s thinking about spaces, intimacy and vulnerability – the stylings are secondary. Her truly unique work serves as a powerful reminder of the importance of telling our own stories. Finding fame in an era of digital democratisation was a game-changer for Medrano, who has been publishing her work on Tumblr for years. “After graduating, I had that hunger and drive in me, so I just hustled. I would post my work all the time. Sharing to get the word out and have people see my work. In some ways, it was perfect timing for me. When everything started switching up, you could make your Instagram your entire portfolio.” Medrano is part of a new generation of young black image-makers who create photos that straddle art and fashion with a broader set of intentions. Moving away from the traditional pursuit of glamour, they are telling stories of social and political inclusivity, advocating for a wider celebration of beauty and the self – a powerful antidote for a group previously marginalised in mainstream fashion and culture. “I don’t want us to get put in a category. It’s easy for publications and brands to now be like, ‘Let’s get a black photographer to shoot it so that they can get the exposure.’ I don’t agree with that. We’ve been amazing before this moment.” Self-determination has been both her secret weapon and a necessity for Medrano. In previous interviews, she’s shared the struggles she’s encountered while assisting, and how she felt alien being the only black girl on set. “I just used my inner resources. I’m so happy to be a part of what’s happening now. It’s amazing, breaking barriers every day.” Growing up in the Bronx shaped Medrano and had a profound effect on her definition of beauty. “Growing FEATURES

Renell Medrano, Untitled, 2019. Courtesy the artist

LEFT PAGE Renell Medrano, Untitled, 2018. Courtesy the artist

After graduating, I had that hunger and drive in me, so I just hustled. I would post my work all the time. Sharing to get the word out and have people see my work. In some ways, it was perfect timing for me. When everything started switching up, you could make your Instagram your entire portfolio

BOTH PAGES: Renell Medrano, Self-portrait, 2019. Shot of SLEEK. Courtesy the artist

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up in urbanised communities, you wouldn’t think the people and places I was around were beautiful, but for me, I saw beauty in that rawness, and I take that everywhere with me.” Growing up surrounded by family and friends, she learnt that “self-love is self-acceptance”, an ethos she tries to share with the kids in her community. “I feel like people have this bad perception of the Bronx and I try and make it relatable to everybody. There are a lot of places like that, and I feel like we need to embrace them. I want the world to know there is beauty in everything, in all people.” Untitled Youth, an intimate look at the lives of four teenage girls growing up in the Bronx, was her undergraduate thesis project at Parsons School of Design, where she earned her BFA in 2014. The series, which mirrors her uptown upbringing, was an immersive two-year project in which she documented all aspects of her subjects’ daily lives. Medrano imbues these regular girls with agency and strength, championing their ‘perfectly imperfect’ beauty to empower them and ensure they feel seen. She says that Parsons initially felt “far-fetched” for her “as it was so hard to get in. But I decided just to do it, and give it my all”. She tells me, “I even went to the enrolment office and made sure they knew I wanted to go there.” The series established Medrano as one to watch and won The New York Times Lens Blog Award. It’s been a busy few years for Medrano, who has built up an incredible portfolio collaborating with Nike, Gucci and Jimmy Choo, shooting covers and creating album art for A$AP Ferg, H.E.R. and Chaka Khan. Today, she’s created a short film with music video director Thuan Tran as part of Peluca, her first ever solo show that opened at New York’s Milk Studios this September – the same venue that also hosted her thesis show. I’m curious if she ever worries about over-exposure? “We live in such a fast world. Everything is given to us so fast. It kinda scares me; I keep trying to slow it down,” she tells me. “It does create anxiety for people. Social media is just encouraging us to put so much out to stay relevant. I try not to let that pace define me or my work.” Being conscious of career longevity can often mean making difficult choices: “I think about what will we have left for later. I say no to a lot more now. Even when it’s a great opportunity, sometimes I say no, it can just be so much.” For Medrano, creating energy and intimacy on demand is tough. “I honestly try and capture moments that mean something to me. Clients freak out sometimes, asking for mood boards. I get it. But you guys hire us; just let us do our thing. In documentary, whatever happens is what you get. I try and explain the vibe I’m going for but it’s on set that the magic happens for me.” I ask how she navigates busy sets. “My team get it,” she tells me. “They 38

Renell Medrano, Untitled, Harlem, 2017. From The New Black Vanguard (Aperture 2019). Courtesy the artist

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don’t hover behind my back. They walk off set and let it happen and then get excited to see the photos a week later.” Her approach is instinctual; she prefers not to direct. “I love to have my subject live in the space we are in and just let things happen. I think that’s why my work feels personal. It’s just about me and the subject.” Five-years on from her graduate show at Milk Gallery, she returned this autumn with Peluca. Named after the Spanish term for ‘wig’, it’s an immersive exploration of the complex dynamics of wig culture and their recent shift into the mainstream. The 25-image show included the aforementioned collaboration with Tran; an extraordinarily sized wig installation by hairstylist, Evanie Frausto, and – the focal point – a ‘salon experience’ installation with set designer, Lauren Nikrooz, where a model got their hair done in front of the crowd. “Peluca came from me reflecting on my work and questioning the role hair and wigs play in my stories. When I was younger, I’d be in the salon two-to-three times a week surrounded by real women. Salons were always such a private and safe space for us. I feel like back in the day talking about wigs was not a thing. It would be looked down upon, so we were scared to embrace it.” The show was a defining moment for Medrano, both personally and professionally. Tired of her images only existing on social media, the act of framing them and having her community come out and connect with the work was transformational. “I wanna inspire people and move people, not just with photos. This living thing had a real impact on people.” Personally, the show gave her purpose. “The energy was amazing on the opening. Kids need to see our community like that. I want to keep the community involved and create hope for them as well.” 39

Renell Medrano, Untitled, 2019. Courtesy the artist

Grit tempered by tenderness has made her a go-to for musicians. Medrano’s recent portraits of musician Dev Hynes (AKA Blood Orange) are both candid and disarming. Hynes sits casually in a pared-back studio wearing a variety of sculptural wigs that transform how we see him. “I’m very picky about the artists that I photograph. Dev is amazing, he trusts my eye. It was a small set, just the three of us, playing around with wigs. All my favourite shoots tend to happen when we are free. We feel each other’s energy. That’s how I usually do my best work.” She continues: “I hate the word ‘celebrity’. We are all waiting to see them all glammed up in perfect light. I remember shooting Megan Thee Stallion and people at first were like, ‘This is not her.’ But I love how I took her from that element and brought her to the Bronx, somewhere she’s never been.” This is Medrano’s trademark, she shoots celebrities as regulars. She grounds them in reality, in places and spaces that feel familiar, lived-in and honest. The images she captures are intimate and authentic. Illusive moments where her subjects let go and reveal aspects of their interior personas. They are free to have fun, to nerd out, to inhabit the emotional space usually reserved for family and friends. “I treat my subjects all equally. Honestly, I don’t even ‘fan out’ anymore. In the beginning, I used to feel pressure, I was so nervous. But what I realised is that we are all the same and me not viewing their status changed everything. They know what they’re worth and who they are. I treat them as regulars because they are.” For photographers, transitioning to being in front of the lens can be a challenging and disorientating encounter. When I ask Medrano about her experience shooting herself for the cover of this issue, she tells me: “I discovered it was interesting.” Aiming to capture the same vulnerability she achieves with her subjects, she explains, “At first I was super nervous, there are so many different ways of doing it. There wasn’t much prepping. I played

Renell Medrano, Untitled, 2019. Courtesy the artist

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around with wigs again to explore different aspects of my personality. I was a character that I am only in my head.” As viewers of her work we experience a lot of Medrano’s inner emotions through her photographs, and in many ways, her creative work is a loving gift to the community who helped make her. With a history of greatness behind her, who knows what her next move will be. But one truth remains: she’s turbocharged and just getting started.

Renell Medrano, Untitled, 2018. Courtesy the artist

LAURIE SIMMONS, Some New: Half Man/Half Woman, 2019. Courtesy the artist and Salon 94

Laurie Simmons:

“I can get really lost, go down the rabbit hole”

FEATURES

The 70-year-old feminist icon returns following retrospectives in Chicago and Texas with an uncanny photographic series exploring gender, her relationship with her children and what it means to feel trapped inside a body

Text by Fanny Singer

“I’m transitioning too,” says Laurie Simmons, both tongue-in-cheek and very sincere. She’s referring to her youngest child, Cyrus Grace Dunham, who transitioned this year. Cyrus’ new memoir, A Year Without a Name (2019), details their personal experience of gender dysmorphia, but in a family like the Simmons’, it was everyone’s business. Few families today are so publicly visible while also being so creative and tight-knit. First, there’s Simmons herself, an artist and filmmaker; then there’s her husband, the painter, Carroll Dunham; her eldest child, the writer and actor Lena Dunham, and Cyrus, who apart from being an author is also an actor and trans activist. They are the type of bohemian family you might associate with the Manhattan avant-garde of the early 20th century, and therefore an obvious choice of subject for Lena’s lovingly parodic, auto-fictional breakout film, Tiny Furniture (2010). In the film, Lena plays Aura, a recent college graduate returned home to the downtown loft of her exasperated artist mother, Siri, portrayed by Simmons, whose practice consists of taking staged photos of dollhouse furniture. The real-life Simmons is known for similar artistic subject matter, but her work is far more varied and yielding. Though some of her work have suffered a relative lack of visibility, her recent retrospective offered a welcome corrective. Laurie Simmons: Big Camera/ Little Camera, which opened in 2018 at The Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth, Texas, and travelled this year to The Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago, offered viewers a chance to roam freely through the intimate worlds Simmons has been creating since the Seventies. FEATURES

These worlds are inhabited by dolls and dummies, candy-coloured domestic interiors, animistic objects, friends in disguise. Her newest and most personally reflective series, however, is Some New (2018–), first shown at New York’s Salon 94 Bowery last year. Featuring models largely stripped of clothing and painted partially or entirely in body paint, the series has been a means, in part, for her to explore her relationship with Cyrus and Lena, as well as several new people who have come into her life of late. One source of inspiration for this body of work arose from Simmons’ discovery of online videos of women who’d had their lower halves carefully painted to make it appear as if they were wearing jeans. In these films, a crew followed behind, documenting the public’s reactions. Given that Simmons has long trafficked in illusion, she was beguiled by these films, and subsequently tracked down the make-up artist responsible for these painterly masterpieces, convincing her to work with her. Simmons explains, “I loved the idea that, for a few moments, it was like I was making paintings, in a really strange but conceptual way. And then of course there’s the idea that my subjects are naked and the only thing between them and the world is what we’ve chosen together to paint on them.” The idea of the ‘Emperor’s new clothes’ was also very much on her mind in light of the political predicament of Donald Trump, specifically the notion that the presidential disguise is a complete illusion. Lena and Cyrus appear in Some New (the former as Audrey Hepburn, the latter as Rudolph Valentino), as 43

FEATURES 44 LEFT LAURIE SIMMONS, from the series Some New (Lena/Pink/Alternate View), 2018. Courtesy the artist and Salon 94

The uncanny needs to exist in real life. The uncanny needs to be uncanny

FEATURES 45 RIGHT LAURIE SIMMONS, from the series Some New (Grace/Orange/Alternate View), 2018. Courtesy the artist and Salon 94

do some of their friends, including some belonging to Cyrus’ circle of queer and trans activists. She allowed each person to collaborate on their presentation, their degree of exposure, their painted ‘outfit’, encouraging each to participate fully in their representation. “It’s as real as I get, it’s the closest I’ve ever gotten to portraiture,” Simmons says of this work. “I never think of myself as someone who’s able to take a portrait, I need the artifice. The uncanny needs to exist in real life. The uncanny needs to be uncanny.” Uncanniness takes on a more expansive set of meanings in Some New. Some of the irreverent tricks remain (body paint, for instance), but the subject is more sober, its implications more political. What could be more uncanny than the feeling of being trapped in the wrong body, assigned an incorrect gender? What could possibly produce a more acute experience of unease? With these recent portraits, especially those of trans subjects and subjects rendered as both male and female (Some New: Half Man/Half Woman [Lavender], 2019), Simmons has returned to the tension of captivity and freedom – to be trapped in a body might be as oppressive (or more so) as being trapped in a house. As the trans artist, Zackary Drucker, recently suggested in reference to the works of trans photographer April Dawn Alison, “A photograph is a type of body.” Simmons’ newest images might just offer that body the possibility of escape. A fascination with expressing the many ways of being began long ago. When Simmons graduated from Philadelphia’s Tyler School of Art and Architecture in 1971, she fell naturally into the medium of photography – both for the ease and transportability of it, but also as a conscious way of rebuking the hegemonic cult of male-dominated Conceptualism. She and Cindy Sherman met and became friends in 1979 at New York’s Artists Space gallery when Simmons had an exhibition there. At the time, their artistic affinity converged around their engagement with so-called ‘setup photography’, whereby constructed tableaux and/or elaborate costumes were crafted expressly for the frame. Though photography has remained Simmons’ principal medium, she’s found ways to animate and diversify it through art films such as the puppet musical, The Music of Regret (2006), as well as My Art (2016), a feature-length film about a middle-aged female artist, also played by Simmons, struggling with her lack of recognition. Engaging with constructed environments and manufactured identities over the course of five decades has made the artist an icon of feminist art alongside Sherman, Martha Rosler and Lynn Hershman Leeson, among others. Yet she insists that her entry into the subject matter that kindled her career was not entirely planned. Early audiences saw the work as a “feminist critique of a woman trapped in the kitchen, trapped in her own home: a domestic captive”, she says. “But I was really thinking about my very whitewashed post-World War II Jewish upbringing, where everything looked perfect.” Gradually, however, the inanimate objects began to move, sprout legs (as in Walking & Lying Objects, [1987–1991]), assume Dadaesque absurdity and emancipate themselves. “I anthropomorphised everything,” Simmons adds, “I imagined my dolls coming to life, I imagined my pets could talk, I imagined objects getting up and walking away.” FEATURES

I imagined my dolls coming to life, I imagined my pets could talk, I imagined objects getting up and walking away

The tension between captivity and freedom, be it structural or physical, has continued to influence her work, even as she’s moved increasingly into photographing live subjects. The critical precursor – the transitional object – may have been sex dolls, which the artist first encountered on a trip to Japan in 2009. These life-size female replicas are designed to offer companionship and sexual surrogacy to their lonely, predominantly male, owners: uncannily human-like silicone mannequins replete with engagement rings and vaginas. Enthralled, Simmons ordered one, then a second, and shot them for a series called The Love Doll (2009–2011) in a range of positions and outfits at her Connecticut home. In these pictures, Simmons gave her dolls the trappings of a rich and fancy life in the countryside, but their placid, vacant, almost-human expressions suggest a total spiritual lacuna. It was a relatively slight conceptual leap to arrive at her 2014 Kigurumi series, in which a human model donned an oversized Japanese anime-style mask and posed in a variety of settings. The intuitive next step was to strip off the mask – but not entirely. In her series How We See (2015), the closed eyelids of her human models are painted meticulously to appear open. Whether to suggest a dream state or a void, the closed/open lids make for an eerie sleight of hand. The artifice and constructedness of these scenes today find themselves reified on social media. In a sense, Simmons’ artistic conceits foreshadowed the Age of the Internet, or at the very least, the Age of the Influencer – this present period in which people carefully produce the illusion of experience and perfection exclusively for their social media followings. Simmons thrills to the labyrinthine offerings of online culture: “I was waiting for the Internet without knowing it,” she exclaims. “I can get really lost, go down the rabbit hole,” adding that, “People laugh when they hear how many hours I’ve spent watching Japanese make-up tutorials. I know the Internet does bad things, but it’s made my life a lot better.” It was the collision of ‘rabbit hole’ discoveries with the more intimate changes in her family life that spurred the most recent series of images. Cyrus’ decision to transition became a kind of inspiration and imperative – this is a family, it’s clear, in which creative influence is reciprocal.

People laugh when they hear how many hours I’ve spent watching Japanese make-up tutorials. I know the internet does bad things, but it’s made my life a lot better

THIS PAGE LAURIE SIMMONS, How We See: Ajak (Green), 2015. Courtesy the artist and Salon 94 RIGHT PAGE LAURIE SIMMONS, How We See: Sisi (Gold), 2015. Courtesy the artist and Salon 94

FEATURES

Kembra Pfahler:

Text by Jessica Stoya

Photography by Fumi Nagasaka

All looks by Rick Owens AW19

“To qualify as if you’re an artist, you have to be practically willing to die” FEATURES

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In 1992, she had her vulva sewn shut in Richard Kern’s Sewing Circle, a feat she performed again, twice, most recently for Penthouse in 1998. Elsewhere, Pfahler has exhibited paintings, portraits and curated exhibitions under her concept of ‘availabilism’, the practice of making art with whatever is close to hand. In 2014, she also coorganised Future Feminism in New York alongside singer Anohni, musicians Sierra and Bianca Casady from CocoRosie, and performer Johanna Constantine, an art, music and performance event that later toured Europe. Here, actor, model and writer Stoya recounts her conversation with the artist at Pfahler’s New York home, including discussions on the relationship between art and disent, artistic personas and the exact way she feels about gender equality.

The Manhattan air is cool. The apartment walls are a warm red. Three black cats of varying builds splay and frolic. Nina, the smallest, hops onto my lap and digs her claws into my jeans for grip. I’m in the presence of Kembra Pfahler, in the space she has lived in and worked from for decades. She’s an artist – largely known for her band The Voluptuous Horror of Karen Black – who transcends genre and medium. She’s also the originator of availabilism and a teacher, currently at Columbia. She’s jet-lagged from bouncing between art gigs in Europe and her class in NYC, and warms up to my questions quickly. Stoya: Do you think rebellion is important for art?

I never really wanted romanticism to be part of my practice the way Mary Shelley and Blake and all of those Romantic poets used to FEATURES

Kembra: Yes, I do, but I don’t think it needs to be necessarily destructive rebellion. It could be like spiritual rebellion where you’re just pushing yourself towards the unknown. You know, and maybe that would be, in some cases, towards what’s transgressive or not acceptable to mainstream identities or mainstream acceptance. It’s exhilarating, to use your vernacular. I do think rebellion is necessary. But again, a sort of tempered rebellion that doesn’t kill you. I never really believed in an art practice that was romantic, that would cause harm because I saw so much harm done to FEATURES

artists growing up in the Lower East Side as a teenager here, and surviving the ‘AIDS Apocalypse’, and seeing so many great people having to die. You know, the culture was genocidal pretty much because such a large percentage of our artists were ‘taken away’ because of AIDS. So I think because I saw so much death in my early-20s and my teens, it felt like such a privilege to still get to produce and still get to be here after we lost everyone in the late Eighties ... I never really wanted Romanticism to be part of my practice the way Mary Shelley and Blake and all of those Romantic poets used to. To have to qualify as if you’re an artist, you have to be practically will-

ing to die. And so that really changed me a lot in the Eighties, getting to experience that. And that gave me an appreciation to still be here and to honour all of my friends who died, like my best friend, Gordon Kurtti. They died and we did an art show for him 26 years after his death at [New York’s] Participant Inc gallery, where we showed all of his work and I was able to finally honour him. But I remember in the late-Eighties when Gordon died, he was someone who really was my first best friend. As an artist, I don’t know if you’ve had that person in your life, but they’re usually very ‘catalystic’ … 51

Stoya: Yeah, you like, hang out with them and you come up with 50 amazing ideas that you never could have come up with yourself.

Kembra: Exactly, that was Gordon and he died when he was 26. And I should get you the book that we made for him. I’m trying to remember to get it, I don’t have any books or anything here. I don’t keep any books, any pictures up on the wall, even in my apartment. Not to switch subjects but I work really monastically here, I just have nothing on the walls. I’ll strip the whole apartment and then start a new piece. And I’ve done that my whole life here. I don’t have any sentimental things on the wall. No pictures. Nothing. I’m not a collector. I ask about a quote from her on the bifurcation of Marilyn Monroe’s public and private personas, and how she manages to move between contexts so easily.

shy, having a different persona. And it helped me with that because I am very shy actually, I never really wanted to be in show business. But I did love the idea of sharing ideas and stories through art and costume. Stoya: How were the fashion interactions for you?

Kembra: The fashion world interactions have been amazing because to go into the fashion world, to me, is like taking a glamorous vacation. And I don’t really ever take vacations. When I go and visit other people’s work, that’s kind of my time off. It’s a working time off. It’s a working vacation. So I just love to see how other artists work. And the people that I’ve worked with in fashion are artists working in fashion, they’re artists working with materials and textiles and cloths, and they’re really good artists. So I’ve got to work with some really great fashion people like

Rick Owens. I just did the Rick Owens show with him in the Pompidou Center in Paris, and I’ve known him for almost 25 years. Yeah, for my whole adult life. So it’s just also another examination of what people are finding beautiful. And for me, art isn’t that much about … I mean, it’s political. And it has, of course, many different functions in our civilisation, in society. But I guess for me, it’s about making life more beautiful. And creating an identity and a lifestyle around me that I find tolerable and beautiful. And a life that is rife with history and mythology and ritual. And that’s what performance is about. For me, it’s about bringing that into my life where there was none. Stoya: So early on you worked with Penthouse and Calvin Klein. How was that, being so shy?

Kembra: Well, that was me also making the best use of what was

Kembra: In art and films, to have a different name is pretty common, you know, to have a different persona just as far as like having a poetic identity. It’s called a poetic identity. It’s an intelligent way to handle all that stuff. Do you know, I think it makes it a little bit easier, actually, to have separate names for things. I don’t think that I’m being a character when I’m in my Karen Black costume at all, I just think I’m Kembra in costume. Stoya: What’s a persona, and what’s just an extension of who you are? And actually are those things the same at the end of the day?

Kembra: I do feel like, you know, I mean, my physical transformation is really extreme. And a lot of times people can’t really believe that it’s me because I’m such a … just a regular gal, regular person. When they see me in my Karen Black costume, they’re like, “Oh, okay. That’s something else.” Because it creates such a larger persona, so much bigger. Stoya: The hair alone.

Kembra: The hair alone. But I do feel that it is simply me and costume and it’s coming from examining what my idea of beauty is to me. That is my idea of beauty – the wig, the teeth, the eye makeup, the colour on my body. It really is what I find to be beautiful. So it’s an expression of beauty to completely transform like that. And it also is part of a great way to deal with being very FEATURES

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MAKE-UP: Ebele Anueyiagu HAIR: Kembra Pfahler, with wigs by Marcowigs PROPS: Kembra Pfahler PRODUCTION: Gillian Doyle @ Home Agency PHOTO ASSISTANT: Matt Baffa PRODUCTION ASSISTANT: Bradley Ahlstrom

We talk for a considerable amount of time about what porn can do and how awesome not-exactly-beat-off material is. We head out to grab a cup of coffee, and Kembra has some parting words about the support she’s received from galleries in recent years.

Kembra: Emalin gallery I met just a few short years ago and did Capital Improvements (2016) with them in London. After we did Future Feminism in NYC [at The Hole in September 2014], I moved all of my business headquarters to Europe. I’ve learned a lot from Leopold Thun and Angelina Volk [coordinators at Emalin] – my two gallery owners that have essentially been the strongest advocates for what I FEATURES

Special thanks: Reverend Dr. Katrina D. Foster and St. John’s Lutheran Church, NY

available because I thought to myself, “Who gets invited to do a Penthouse spread?” And I was someone who made a decision very early on that it was alright for me to show my whole body. And that, to me … It gave me power. I didn’t do it because it made me an object, or someone who was exploring adult sexuality. To be naked to me was a beautiful gesture. Because I felt there was so much beauty in the naked body and so much classic fine art. You know, look at the statue of [Michelangelo’s] David, everyone’s naked in sculpture. So to me it, it was never intended … I was always surprised when people took it as a gesture from me that was wanting to be a ‘nudie cutie’ or something. To me, it was just about being a serious, more provocative artist. And that’s why I sewed my vagina shut in Penthouse which really turned a lot of heads [1998, photographed by Michael Halsband]. Performance art wasn’t as popular as it is now, in the Nineties. And I was coming from being sort of a famous rock person at the time. I wasn’t as involved in the fine art world. When [Penthouse founder] Bob Guccione asked me because my band was famous. And you know, magazines need fodder. They need content. So they needed to get around to me just because they needed to fill the pages too. No one else would do it. It was a great spread. That was a 20-page spread and I sewed my vagina shut and the fire department guys saw [it], and they said to me, “Is that you in Penthouse? What on earth were you doing?” because it was such a mixed message. It wasn’t exactly like beat-off material. do since I began. I never liked Europe because I always thought everywhere looked like World War Two. And I didn’t like the idea that they would like me more in Europe. As a contrarian, I stayed in the USA where I was most unwanted. Record companies asked me to put on clothes and act more satanic – it would sell more records. The art business devalued performance. There is now a tiny little window that opened for me where a crevice of light seeps through. Even an inch of light will propel me to finish more, do more and to stick around longer. I’ve never had too much support, so when it does come, I appreciate it and don’t take it for granted. I like the idea of proliferation, not just flipping the script. Now women’s voices are being

heard louder than a whisper. A proliferating voice can obfuscate all others. I am not an equality seeker. I like the idea of only women being heard for the next century. I can’t imagine any real change could happen otherwise. Having compassion to men’s crimes and misogynies will sink the ship, the world won’t last as we know it. It’s women who give birth to men. It’s women who should create a new directive and a new understanding of how we’ll survive as a species. As for a roadmap, the tenets of Future Feminism seem like a great place to start.

FEATURES

Chopova

Lowena

“We try to

make sure

everything is either sourced from vintage fabrics

or recycled”

Text by Grace Banks

Creating luxury clothes from upcycled Bulgarian fabric sourced from auctions and tip-offs in, the South London label balancing sustainability, Balkan heritage and high fashion FEATURES

Photography by Xavier Mas

Emma Chopova and Laura Lowena are on WhatsApp, email and Viber-“a super niche app that Bulgarian people often use”. Together they co-founded their brand, Chopova Lowena, in 2016 after meeting at London’s Central Saintt Martins, and since then, using email and chat apps, they’ve sourced some of the most interesting fabrics currently around in luxury fashion. These range from 1960s Bulgarian table cloths and bridal dresses from the Eighties, to little trinkets, badges and pins from auction websites. But the clothes they’re making from these fabrics are far from dowdy. They include figurehugging dresses with fitted bodices and leather jackFEATURES

All looks by Chopova Lowena AW19

ets, to name just a couple of pieces. Since launching, one of Chopova Lowena’s trademark items has been a kilt made from secondhand Bulgarian fabric fastened with a huge leather belt with a gladiator-esque buckle and has been seen everywhere, from Instagram to street style. One big driving force behind this collection is a commitment to sustainable fashion – the duo make their clothes from used textile sources. Another is the way this technique suggests a new way to wear clothes that are as interesting as they are well made. I spoke with them in Paris during fashion week in September to find out how it all comes together. 57

EC: We took about a year. We got a bunch of scholarships and we were able to find a studio and be financially in a place where could start. We took a year to make a lookbook [Kukeri (2018)] with a photographer, Charlotte Wales. We made that lookbook and then basically, with the book launch, a week later we got the showroom and Matches saw us. And then Matches just messaged us on Instagram and we got our first order. And from that first order, we got started. We made the kilt skirts mostly, it was almost like a capsule collection. There were references from both our MA and that collection in there. GB: I know you use a lot of fabrics from Bulgaria. How do you find them?

Grace Banks: How did you meet?

Emma Chopova: We were in the same class at Saint Martins, we met on the first day [in 2011]. We spoke to each other first and we made friends quite quickly. We both lived in South London, we both had a massive trek [to university], and we both went out in South London, so we started going out together. GB: Which brands were you interning for?

EC: I worked at Galliano and Vivienne Westwood, McQueen, and even though we had good experiences, at some places more than others, it wasn’t what we wanted. We knew early on that we wanted to work together, we had literally exactly the same taste. We were always really impressed by each other’s research, by each other’s work, everything. So we were like, ‘It would make us stronger to be a team.’ We always knew that it would make us stronger, and our business stronger, too.

EC: The fabrics we source from Bulgaria are sourced by local people we work with and also from various auction sites, we have a lot of people that find fabric for us. A large part of why we can source them is that, when, in Bulgarian tradition, they make dowries for brides, you weave loads of aprons to then give to the village. They get stored for 100 years and then people are like, ‘I don’t need this.’ And then they throw it out. So we basically have a lot of people looking for fabrics for us and finding them in these dowries. It’s actually become a really funny process because I have these apps, it’s quite a niche app that’s popular in Bulgaria called Viber, but I’ll use anything from WhatsApp to Facebook messenger to communicate with sellers.

LL: Oh, absolutely. We try to make sure everything is either sourced from vintage fabrics or recycled, we try our best.

Laura Lowena: Not in our BA but in our MA, yes. We told our tutor at the time and then we had a meeting with Fabio [Piras], who’s the course leader of the MA, and then he was like, ‘So, explain to me why you want to do this.’ It was a pretty informal chat, and we ended up getting the places and working together.

GB: The whole collection seems to be hinged around that principle, is that a driving force behind it? For example, would you want to do the same thing with a fabric that’s been produced in a big factory in Hong Kong?

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We try to find other options, even if they’re not the most sustainable because, I think, even taking a small step towards it is better than just opting in for the really fancy leather that everyone’s going to be attracted to, and spending loads of money on it. GB: Does that take a lot more time?

EC: Oh my god, yeah. The thing is, the foundation takes a long time, finding all the people, building the system. Because even all of these small elements on the jacket are cast in Bulgaria by this man who’s amazing. He’s quite old now, he used to cast coins and buckles for the military. He’s like a master of casting and he engraves everything perfectly. It’s so beautifully done, but coming to this person, finding this system, that’s definitely taken a good year, and we’re still searching for so many things like that.

GB: There’s also this huge sustainability element to what you’re doing, because, you know, these fabrics are sometimes up to 100 years old, so some of these pieces have really done the rounds.

GB: And when you were studying, were you telling your tutors you wanted to work together?

GB: How did the first collection evolve from studying together at Saint Martins?

thing else, we won’t do in another way. But that is difficult. it’s hard to make a leather jacket out of recycled, sustainable leather. We have one leather which is recycled, it’s bonded back together, pieces of old bits of leather. But then this jacket, the crocodile one is from a small place in Bulgaria where a man buys small leftovers from Italian factories and then he’ll resell them to people that want to buy one or five, or in our case maybe 100.

LL: No. I mean, partly for aesthetic reasons. We have a nylon skirt, because we want to have the sporty element in it, but pretty much every58

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GB: How important is it to you that Bulgaria is part of your story? Emma, I know you spent a lot of time there when you were younger and have family there.

EC: It’s very rewarding. And also, the fact that the production right now is in a very small atelier run by women. And one of the women outsources because about a decade ago – I think, maybe about two decades ago – when the majority of luxury production moved to Asia, a lot of Bulgarian seamstresses lost work and started working in other industries. There used to be a big industry for luxury manufacturing but it died out, and there are very few really good quality seamstresses left, and they’re very spread out throughout the country. So this woman will outsource throughout the country, she’ll say, ‘You make these skirts in your atelier, you make these skirts.’ She basically has built a community of seamstresses throughout Bulgaria, which is a beautiful thing. We’re helping put them back into making luxury products, which they’re definitely now making. GB: How much are you aware of trends when you’re designing?

LW: We aren’t. EC: We work in a way that’s very instinctive to our own tastes. I start out with drawing, Laura starts out with FEATURES

FEATURES

collaging, and then we’ll go back and forth. This season’s collection is inspired by Victorian clothes and parachuting, flying sports. So we wanted light dresses that have this – I don’t know how to describe it – the feeling of those beautiful Victorian dresses. They keep the shape and they’re light but structured. And then we wanted to incorporate the metal elements into the dresses so they still look like our brand. But that was kind of it with the dresses. I think that it’s difficult to think about it in a sense of, “This is more fashion, and this is more classic.” I think we just – yeah, just design stuff.

In Bulgarian tradition, they make dowries for brides, you weave loads of aprons to then give to the village. They get stored for 100 years and then people are like, ‘I don’t need this.’ And then they throw it out

Thebe Magugu:

The 26-year-old womenswear designer from Johannesburg on winning this year’s LVMH Prize, making zines, the overlooked role of women in the struggle against apartheid and how his mum got him hooked on fashion

“My 16-year-old self’s dreams are now coming

to fruition so

right now I feel unstoppable” FEATURES

FEATURES

Helen Jennings: Please tell us about your LVMH journey.

Text by Helen Jennings

Thebe Magugu made fashion history this autumn when he became the first African recipient of the LVMH Prize. The young South African designer was chosen from 1,700 entrants by a panel of judges including Jonathan Anderson of Loewe, Kris Van Assche from Berluti, Maria Grazia Chiuri of Dior, Nicolas Ghesquière of Louis Vuitton and Marc Jacobs. This, however, hasn’t been his only award this year. Magugu was also the winner of the International Fashion Showcase (IFS) during London Fashion Week in February, an exhibition at Somerset House supporting 16 emerging designers from around the globe. As accolades go, it doesn’t get much better than these two. So what is Magugu’s magic touch? Part of it is the way his gifted designs fuse the complexities of his country and upbringing. The intricate craftsmanship and storied motifs speak to his heritage, while the bold tailoring and experimental constructions create an eminently wearable wardrobe for modern women. Sometimes sporty, sometimes ‘suity’, the strong lines, unexpected proportions and hybrid detailing that make up his elegant silhouettes cherish their wearer. For Magugu, championing the strength and vulnerability of South African women through his work is paramount. In a country where rising rates of gender-based violence has, even in President Cyril Ramaphosa’s view, become akin to a war on women, this wunderkind uses fashion as a positive vehicle for change.

Born in 1993 in the small mining city of Kimberly in the Northern Cape Province, Magugu was raised in a matriarchal household that nurtured his love of all things fashion. He relocated to Johannesburg to study at the London International School of Fashion (LISOF), graduating in 2014, and after a couple of years of hustle in the local industry, launched his eponymous label with the Spring/Summer 2017 collection, Geology. Since then, every season has continued to be named after a university subject, a nod to his thoughtful reflections on the times we live in. The designer’s vision blossomed with the multidisciplinary project, African Studies, which was a tribute to South Africa’s constitution and people. It encompassed his Autumn/Winter 2019 collection with key pieces such as a racy raincoat covered in a print of the national flower, the king protea, and debut zine Faculty Press, featuring a who’s who of South African talent including painter, Lady Skollie, and queer performance duo, FAKA, among others. On the phone from his home in Johannesburg where he’s recovering not only from his first buying season in Paris but also from a nasty case of chickenpox, Magugu reflects upon his stellar year and the dazzling prospects ahead.

Thebe Magugu: I almost didn’t apply because I thought it was too soon but my friends and family persuaded me that I had nothing to lose. I was in London prepping for the IFS opening when I found out I’d made the top 20 and was requested to be in Paris the following week. I had to run to the South African embassy to tell them that, come hell or high water, I needed my Schengen visa. HJ: That trip was to be your first ever to Paris?

TM: Yes. I spent two days at the LVMH headquarters meeting around 70 industry experts including Naomi Campbell and Anna Wintour – the sort of people I’d only ever seen on television. It was insane. A few weeks later I was in an Uber when a call from France came through. I was expecting disappointing news so when they told me I’d reached the final I just started crying. The poor driver probably thought someone had died. It was really emotional to feel all of those insecurities I had harboured about myself falling away. HJ: How was the big day?

TM: We had to present for 10 minutes then the judges asked questions. It was so nerve-racking that I didn’t think I’d done myself justice so I walked out and sulked for an hour. Then the announcement was made in French, which I don’t speak. When people started clapping and looking at me, I realised I’d won. HJ: What takeaways did you receive from the esteemed judges?

TM: Kris Van Assche said it was admirable that I wanted to keep my business based in Joburg. Jonathan Anderson said that Africa has the best crafts and that he could see that in my collection. Maria Grazia Chiuri felt that my fabrics were as good as those in Italy. And Delphine Arnault [executive vice president of LVMH] remarked that I struck the right balance between imagination and commerciality. These are people I deeply admire so to hear all of that from them is really motivating. HJ: You’ve won 300,000 euros and a year-long mentorship. What do you hope to achieve with these opportunities? FEATURES

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TM: With the money, I’m excited to build a professional studio and hire people in key positions. Up to now, I’ve been working from a room in my apartment with just one machinist. And with the mentorship, I want to learn about distribution and shipping – which are both tricky in South Africa – as well as intellectual property, branding and communications. HJ: How do you feel about being embraced by the luxury fashion world?

TM: It’s a blessing and a curse. On one side, it’s a fascinating industry with such beauty and incredible people. On the other side, I have now witnessed the dramas and politics, and how easy it is to play that game of trying to impress the right people, which is disappointing. But being based in 65

TM: Exactly. If I moved to Paris I’d be one of many. It is more important to nurture my country and my continent. Sure, Africa is trending right now but we must build our own fashion infrastructure whether the global eye is on us or not. My path toward having a global brand is going to be longer here because I’m part of a [developing] industry, but it’s important to cultivate the skills and resources we have so that we can all benefit. I want to ensure that I tap into all the networks that I am given access to and then I can share that information with others. HJ: In the same spirit, your zine, Faculty Press, does a wonderful job of uplifting the creative scene in South Africa.

TM: The talent is undeniably here – people are doing such incredible work. I started Faculty Press because so many of these amazing people don’t have the visibility they deserve. The first edition was fronted by FAKA, who merge this idea of heritage and culture with something really forward-looking, which for me represents all creatives in South Africa. Some of my new stockists want to sell the zine alongside the collection and I plan to bring out a new issue each September. HJ: How does that interplay of past and future play out in your own work?

TM: From a cultural perspective, I’m split between two tribes – Setswana and Sotho – which are both known for beading and working with their hands, so I love to use fashion to research and reveal this heritage within the international space I’m trying to occupy. HJ: How did you first discover your affinity for fashion?

TM: I grew up with three generations of women who all had such a deep love for fashion. When my mother bought something new, she’d put it on and ask, “How should I act in this dress – do I greet people or am I a bit rude?” She understood the power of fashion and how it reveals and hides a person. We’d all watch FashionTV together religiously, too. So even though my family didn’t have FEATURES

HJ: How did you develop these ideas for your Spring/ Summer 2020 collection, Prosopography?

TM: When people think of South Africa’s freedom fighters they think of men like Mandela and Tutu and forget the women. So this collection is an ode to the Black Sash. They were a group of white, middle class women who put themselves in danger to fight for black people’s dignity and rights during apartheid. I met some of the members and one of them told me that they would cook breakfast for their families in the morning wearing a conservative day dress, then change into jeans, anoraks and hiking boats in order to go out and protest.

HJ: You’ve come far in a relatively short time. What is your biggest ambition?

TM: This year has been very intense and given me so much drive. My 16-year-old self’s dreams are now coming to fruition, so right now I feel unstoppable. In the future, I see myself as a global brand that acts as a resource for people in South Africa and internationally to hear about our rich history while providing them with beautiful, functional clothes, invested with cultural value.

HJ: They were known for what they called ‘hauntings’.

TM: These were silent demonstrations outside institutions and government buildings. They would just stand there, looking down and wearing black sashes around their shoulders, in order to shame those who saw them. And when their sashes were confiscated, they’d wear black gloves and fold their arms against their chests. I found it fascinating that they occupied these two zones of domesticity and disobedience and used fashion in such an intelligent way.

much, seeing how fashion made them happy inspired me to provide that for other people. Kimberley is basically one street long so I had to be resourceful and create my own reality. At school, I published this fashion magazine called Little Black Book and my mum would sneak into her office at night to print copies for me. It became so popular it took over the school paper. HJ: How did you find studying fashion in South Africa?

HJ: How did all this inform the collection?

TM: I wanted to go to Central Saint Martins or Parsons but we couldn’t afford it, which was a bitter pill to swallow. The next best thing was LISOF and even there the school fees were really high. I can’t even tell you how much my mother sacrificed to send me to university, so my wins have been really overwhelming for her.

TM: There’s a red coat with technical details and a sleeve that collapses to reveal a fully bulletproof vest made from Kevlar. There’s also a look that appears to be covered in a zebra print but it’s actually hand-painted using mud from a witch doctor in Lesotho [an enclaved country within South Africa], which has been mixed with a chemical to make the dye fast-acting, and applied using an ancient technique akin to marbling. I love it so much because it’s literally a part of where I’m from, which is very special to me.

HJ: Your African Studies project was a turning point for your brand. How did you present it for your IFS installation?

TM: I wanted to show an authentic representation of my country. The installation was of three women floating around a table upon which is a scroll – South Africa’s constitution, the most progressive in the world – that drops onto the floor and out into the exhibition. It was my way of saying that the country is becoming more and more women-led despite the pushbacks they face. I still live in a misogynistic society and yet still women have made huge strides. It was a space of joy and celebration. 66

Photographer: Travys Owen Creative Director: Thebetsile Magugu Make-up: Orlioh Hair: Bomzi Zee Lekgoro Talents: Mitchelle Daka, Vanessa Ngolo, Ponahalo Mojapelo

HJ: So it is imperative for you to have an impact locally?

When my mother bought something new, she’d put it on and ask, ‘“How should I act in this dress – do I greet people, or am I a bit rude?”’ She understood the power of fashion, and how it reveals and hides a person

All looks by Thebe Magugu AW19. Photos courtesy Thebe Magugu

South Africa helps because it means I can stay rooted in normality, work at my own pace and help to develop the industry here.

HJ: Tell us about your new high-tech clothing labels.

TM: From this collection onward, all labels are fitted with microchips that, if any smart phone taps them, will open a webpage that showcases the story of the collection as well as photographs of everyone involved in the making of the garment, from the fabric weavers in Cape Town to the tailors in Joburg. I love the full transparency and the idea of bringing culture and technology together. FEATURES

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Legal cannabis-based health products are booming among middle class consumers. Meanwhile, people of colour in the UK and the US continue to be disproportionately targeted by police for personal marijuana possession. So can the upsurge in weed and wellness stop this injustice, or is it just business as usual? Illustration by Derek Ercolano

UP IN SMOKE Text by Kieran Yates

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In the most recent season of Orange Is The New Black, Piper, the white, middle class, irritatingly central protagonist, is released from prison and goes out with her brother. He introduces her to the cutely named ‘bloobs’, a potent weed-infused blueberry, the subtext being that, since Piper’s been in prison, the world has changed, and now, wagyu beef and cannabis edibles are what all the white hipster kids are doing! And it’s true. The ‘lifestyle-ification’ of CBD – ‘cannabidiol’, an increasingly popular cannabis derivative that is claimed to have various salubrious

uses – is a natural extension of the wellness movement which has grown across North America and Europe at a dizzying speed. Recent data suggests that the industry has increased from 120 billion euros in 2015 to around 133 billion Euros in 2018. The middle class ‘green rush’ surrounding CBD has neatly rebranded weed as a holistic way of looking after yourself. In 2019, the idea of ‘cannabis as a lifestyle commodity’ is a huge business, and celebrities are cashing in. This year alone we’ve seen Seth Rogen opening recreational cannabis brand Houseplant, Kim Kardashian throwing

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For millennials, a generation more keenly aware of anxiety than any other before it […] the idea of CBD being able to slow down the furious pace of life for a moment is balm

72 a CBD-themed baby shower, and – err – American lifestyle expert Martha Stewart launching a side hustle with a range of CBD hemp products. For those unfamiliar with the substance, the main thing to understand about CBD is that it is different to the stuff in marijuana that gets you high called THC (‘tetrahydrocannabinol’, the reason why it’s illegal to possess weed in many countries). CBD is a chemical compound derived from the cannabis plant or hemp, its non-intoxicating industrial variant. It generally contains less than 0.3% THC and boasts a number of health benefits. A 2015 study from the European Journal of Pain showed that CBD can help arthritic pain, and in June 2018, the US Food and Drug Administration approved Epidiolex, the first ever cannabis-derived medicine for epilepsy and seizures. THC, on the other hand, is weed’s psychoactive component, the aforementioned stuff that gets you stoned. Due to the illegal and unregulated trade, cannabis growers have cultivated plants with such high levels of THC that the drug has been linked to psychosis and other long-term mental health issues. There are complicated lines to be drawn, however, when it comes to the legality of these cannabis-based products. For example, although CBD is legal in the UK and EU countries, in the US, where some states have legalised recreational and/or medical marijuana use, CBD is only licensed to be sold as a cosmetics product when it is derived from hemp and contains less than 0.3% THC. In addition, there are countries such as Spain and Portugal where all personal cannabis use is decriminalised, whereas others, such as Sweden, allow CBD to be sold for medical purposes despite pursuing a zero-tolerance policy on recreational marijuana use. Or to put it another way: regulated weed – good; unregulated weed – bad. In terms of the wellness industry, the debate surrounding the legalisation of weed is, in some ways,

old news. What’s more important is the sheer lifestyle element. Infused gourmet granola clusters, peanut butter cookies, CBD vaginal sprays touted to intensify orgasms, all packaged in monochrome, marketed to arouse top tier, luxury food branding. Reports abound of middle class housewives microdosing concentrated THC; meanwhile, online lifestyle stores like Prima offer 15-minute phone consultations with ‘Self-Care Concierges’ to discuss your CBD wellness with you. Cannabis is moving on up. For millennials, a generation more keenly aware of anxiety than any other before it (the 2018 Global Benefits Attitudes Study found 61% of millennials suffer high or above average stress compared with 33% of Boomers and 50% of Generation X), the idea of CBD being able to slow down the furious pace of life for a moment is balm, and gives weight to the activism surrounding the legalisation of marijuana. In fact, the only consistent factor in this discussion appears to be the disparity between race and class. In the US, the American Civil Liberties Union reports that between 2001 and 2010, AfricanAmericans were arrested for marijuana possession at almost four times the rate of whites. In the UK, according to Metropolitan Police data, black and minority ethnic Londoners are more than twice as likely to be arrested for cannabis use. In short, while weed has been ‘gentrified’ into a lifestyle product, its demonisation as a recreational substance has the distinctly pungent scent of racism and classism. Activism around legalisation has historically been shrugged off as the ramblings of lefty lunatics who just want to sign on and get high on other people’s tax contributions. The tree huggers, vegans, climate activists and weed smokers of yesteryear were a loud minority who, given half a chance, would all scramble your kids into fried eggs – a persistent misconception

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first popularised in a 1987 TV advert featuring actor John Roselius for the US Partnership for Drug-Free Kids. “This is your brain,” Roselius says, holding an egg. “This is drugs,” he continues, gesturing to a frying pan. “This is your brain on drugs,” the actor intones while cracking the egg. “... Any questions?” After all, it was only in 2018 that someone challenged this TV-myth when professional chef Todd Sugimoto starred in a cannabisoriented parody of the anti-drugs classic (the original of which drew criticism from the American Egg Board for creating a negative association with eggs). In politics, who could forget Jeff Sessions’ now infamous April 2016 US Senate address in which he declared, “Good people don’t smoke marijuana.” And that’s the headline, isn’t it? Good people don’t smoke it, unless it’s medically sanctioned – they ingest it in the form of a peanut butter cookie from the farmers’ market. Janice Buu is the founder of Kana Skincare, a company started in 2017 that is stocked in Sephora and luxury London outlet, Glow Bar, and which boasts, among other things, an award-winning hemp-infused sleeping mask cream. Before this, Buu used to run Dankgals, which she describes as an organisation “raising awareness for women who use cannabis as alternative medicine”. Through this, she also hosted cannabis yoga classes, seminars, and holiday-themed wellness events “along with high quality smoking accessories made for women”. The platform’s Insta account still boasts 46k followers and joins the growing number of cannabis influencers online such as Cannabis Feminist (@cannabistfeminist) and sex coach Ashley Manta (@cannasexual). Although the health benefits of CBD are clear, the extent to which cannabis has been gentrified in order to sell it to middle class consumers is depressing. In reality, this supposedly anti-establishment narrative doesn’t hold up when you consider who really pays the price. As noted, the prison-industrial complex disproportionately targets impoverished people of colour – especially black men, as in the US – for personal possession of the drug. In turn, this maintains the larger system of stop-and-search as well as the prison economy, and a state-wide dehumanisation of predominantly black men and people of colour. Marijuana is a class issue: in the UK, possession of cannabis carries up to 5 years in prison, an unlimited fine or both. Now that the wellbeing benefits of CBD have been successfully rebranded, it might feel like the first step in softening the criminalisation of marijuana. So, does the rise of a CBD vaginal spray feel like a radical step in debunking the idea of marijuana madness? And, if you’re an advocate of CBD, are you more likely

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to be an advocate of cannabis? Despite being an advocate for change, Buu is reserved about her legalisation activism, saying that, “by introducing effective CBD-based products, I hope we can all look into THC and other cannabinoids as well, and dive deep into the understanding of how these cannabinoids can work together to heal us all.” The gentrification of marijuana is really, when you think about it, inevitable. Borne from the earth for free, capitalism was always going to slap some monochromatic labels in Helvetica on cannabis products and monetise it. Truer still, is the fact that its use has been co-opted from communities of colour. Today, it finds its way onto the luxury shelves that boast white customers and inflated prices. Consider how suburban white kids fetishise supposedly ‘Rasta’ lifestyles by playing Bob Marley and beeswaxing their ‘dreads’. Many of them are probably unaware that Rastafari culture has long been demonised by a number of middle class Jamaicans, something that Western eyes have ignored. Of course, much of this is a realisation of what communities across the world have known for millennia. Ancient marijuana-based remedies and a reverence for the healing properties of cannabis have always been part of the wisdom of the global diaspora. There is one way in which things get legitimised in a context where, in the UK and the US at least, marijuana-related arrests are often based on class and race – slap on a white face, a graphic design identity, and call it wellness. At the end of the Orange is the New Black episode, after gorging on bloobs, Piper fails her drug test, a mistake that could land her back in jail. Except it doesn’t and she’s let off. It’s a whole new world, after all – for some.

Marijuana is a class issue: in the UK, possession of cannabis carries up to 5 years in prison, an unlimited fine or both

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Today, we call them magic mushrooms but the Aztecs considered them to be the flesh of the gods. So what changed? Sirin Kale traces the influence of hallucinogenic fungi in North African cave paintings, Lewis Carroll, the Swinging Sixties and Broad City, and finds that sometimes, seeing really is believing

SEANA GAVIN, Mindful Mushroom. Courtesy the artist

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Text by Sirin Kale

In Lewis Carroll’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, Alice eats mushrooms which alter her physical state and grant her access to unexplored worlds. “She set to work nibbling at the mushroom […] till she was about a foot high: then she walked down the little passage: and then – she found herself at last in the beautiful garden, among the bright flower-beds and the cool fountains.” Despite the novel’s association with hallucinogens (which largely emerged thanks to Sixties counterculture), Carroll, an Oxford academic whose real name was Charles Lutwidge Dodgson, most likely never experimented with them, and certainly never planned for his 1865 masterpiece to become a psychedelic classic. During the Sixties and Seventies, this association verged on obsession, as musicians, writers and artists jumped on the bandwagon, notably San Francisco’s Jefferson Airplane, whose 1967 track, White Rabbit, offered a retelling of Dodgson’s children’s book with a West Coast hippie twang. Consider the way, for instance, singer-songwriter Grace Slick’s lyrics transform Alice’s scenes into a full-on drug-addled mess. “When the men on the chessboard get up and tell you where to go,” she intones in her booming voice. “And you’ve just had some kind of mushroom, and your mind is moving low … Go ask Alice, I think she’ll know.” Mushrooms quickly became an icon for experimental drug use. What would the psychedelic Sixties and Seventies have been without them? The Beatles’ 1967 Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band was the product of the band’s adventures in the world of hallucinogenic drugs (they were mostly dabbling with LSD but used mushrooms as well). Even after John Lennon finally quit LSD, he still viewed mushrooms as an essentially harmless, benign pleasure. “A little mushroom or peyote is not beyond my scope, you know, maybe twice a year or something,” he told Playboy’s David Sheff in 1980. Despite the now ubiquitous – and frankly, often very boring – tales of psychedelic excess committed by members of 20th century rock bands, humans have in fact consumed magic mushrooms for thousands of years. And rather take them simply for pleasure, they’ve often been used in religious ceremonies that harnessed the power of psilocybin (the psychedelic compound found in magic mushrooms) in the service of a spiritual goal. Magic mushrooms are claimed to be depicted in cave paintings from North Africa estimated to have been made circa 9,000 BCE. Elsewhere, the Aztecs of

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Central America, who considered these fungi to be gifts from the gods, are believed to have taken magic mushrooms during sacred rituals. But it was a 1957 photo-essay for Life magazine that helped whet our modern-day appetite for recreational psychedelic drugs. In the article, investment banker Robert Gordon Wasson travelled to Mexico and met Maria Sabina, a renowned spiritual healer and shaman. Wasson subsequently became – by his own account – the first white man in recorded history to eat the divine mushrooms. Where Wasson went, the luminaries of the burgeoning counterculture followed. In 1960, Timothy Leary, the American psychologist, counter-culture icon and advocate of the psychotherapeutic application of hallucinogens, travelled to Mexico to try magic mushrooms for himself as part of the Harvard Psilocybin Project. Following his trip, it wasn’t long before celebrities followed in his footsteps, with Lennon, Bob Dylan, Keith Richards and Mick Jagger also making trips to see Sabina. (Legend has it that Sabina, who died penniless in 1985, regretted her role in popularising magic mushrooms outside her community). Although preserved magic mushrooms were made illegal in the UK following a 1978 court case (a judgement made by the House of Lords, who ironically also decided not to prescribe fresh psilocybin fungi, a ruling that was eventually overturned in 2005), their legacy has endured, largely thanks to culture. In season four, episode four of Broad City (2017), for example, Abbi and Ilana trip on mushrooms and ramble through an animated, psychedelic wonderland version of New York, bringing the duo closer together.

Carroll, an Oxford academic whose real name was Charles Lutwidge Dodgson, most likely never experimented with them, and certainly never planned for his 1865 masterpiece to become a psychedelic classic

THIS PAGE LEFT: GRAHAM LITTLE, Untitled (Wood), 2019. Courtesy Alison Jacques Gallery, London RIGHT: STEPHAN DOITSCHINOFF, Carne de Los Dioses, 2019. Courtesy the artist

Not all depictions, however, are positive. Conversely, in Paul Thomas Anderson’s 2017 period thriller, Phantom Thread, mushrooms are used to nefarious ends. Alma Elson, played by Vicky Krieps, is a young, clumsy waitress recruited by Daniel Day-Lewis’ Reynolds Woodcock, a controlling and demanding fashion designer, to become his muse. She is tasked with making Woodcock a mushroom omelette in the morning, but – fearing her time as Woodcock’s muse is limited – she intentionally poisons him with toxic mushrooms. Mushrooms subsequently become a symbol of their twisted, symbiotic relationship: Alma poisons Woodcock multiple times, with his knowledge and implied consent, to show him how much he needs her. In light of their significance in art and society, an upcoming exhibition at London Somerset House will document our enduring fascination with magic mushrooms. Mushrooms: The Art, Design and Future of Fungi, opens on 31 January 2020, and will feature work from artists including Cy Twombly, Hannah Collins and children’s book author, Beatrix Potter. Visual artist Seana Gavin’s Mindful Mushroom (2017) will be exhibited, too. Depicting a collaged woman, arms splayed gracefully from a bulbous fungal body, her lips a disjointed kiss on a mushroom head, the image updates psychedelic Surrealism for the 21st century. In Mushroomscape (2017), another image from Gavin’s series, giant, flapping mushrooms loom large over rural houses and citadels. It’s an apt illustration of how taking magic mushrooms can block out everything else in your consciousness, distend reality, and sometimes linger in your memory for decades to come. There’s evidence to show that those early spiritual healers were right: magic mushrooms can be a powerful panacea for a range of conditions, from anxiety to depression. A 2016 study by John Hopkins University study found that 80% of cancer patients experienced reduced anxiety and depression after consuming controlled doses of psilocybin. Another study, published in 2017 by researchers from Imperial College London, found psilocybin was effective in treating depression. And the effects can be long-lasting: five weeks after treatment ended, they noted, nine out of 19 patients said that their depression was significantly reduced. Perhaps, then, mushrooms can heal and even unlock new ways of seeing the world. But as anyone who’s ever had a negative drug experience will attest, if you’re going to experiment, take care, get advice, do them in a safe environment with people you trust, and don’t, whatever you do, go chasing rabbits.

77 TOP: ALEX MORRISON, Mushroom Motif (Black and Ochre), 2017. Courtesy the artist, care of L’inconnue Gallery, Montreal BELOW: AMANDA COBBETT, Fungi. Courtesy Andrew Montgomery

Mushrooms: The Art, Design and Future of Fungi is at Somerset House from 31 Jan – 26 Apr 2020, free, somersethouse.org.uk

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ORISHAS

78 Text by Camila Falquez

I write these words on the plane back to New York after a week that felt like a lifetime in Havana. From the doorsteps of the many houses I was in, I felt a tense and difficult reality, a very basic survival instinct that ruled every single human interaction I observed. Survival from a dysfunctional society that uses justice and equality as slogans under a burning sun, and the kind of tourism that is squeezing Cuba’s limited resources. The country’s lack of material wealth is, however, proportionally as intense as how alive the Yoruba religion (or Santería as it is also called) is for some Cubans. According to tradition, practitioners of this religion are descended from one of several deities called Orishas associated with the different roles, features and elements, including Yemoja (water), Oya (wind), Obatala (sky), Eleggua (Orisha of roads), Ogun (a warrior and spirit of rum and metalwork), or Changó (a royal descendant of the West African Yoruba people and a powerful ruler). Believers in Cuba talk about their Orisha backgrounds with pride, and use it as a means of differentiating each other while living under Cuban communism. In Yoruba, each of these Orisha ‘houses’ has is its own temple, and Yoruba families often create their own altars. Moreover, the religion’s rituals are taught from handwritten accounts and by word of mouth, sometimes through conversations in doorways, or else written in notebooks inherited from relatives. Cubans don’t have the toxic ‘luxury’ of disposable goods. For them, every object is valuable because, like they say, en Cuba no hay nada (‘in Cuba there is nothing’). Instead, they have a spiritual abundance that

made me feel as if as all the objects that surround me aren’t really necessary. For Yoruba Cubans, money is not simply a means to buy objects; it is also used as an offering to the Orishas. The Yoruba faith is sometimes so strong that its most devout followers often believe that the dead can invade their bodies through the sound of drums. Elsewhere, it is deemed that, when a father leaves a family or a lover betrays you, that behind all of these misfortunes lies the influence of an Orisha. Conversely, these spirits are also to blame when your lover returns or when a family member is cured of an illness. Yoruba is a complex and multifaceted faith, and it is no wonder the people that brought it to Cuba also influenced the development of the country’s national sound, Rumba. To this extent, this musical genre can be viewed as a metaphor for Cuban society: intense, connected, pulsating and alive. The romanticised version of Cuban life (the Salsa dancers, the pastel buildings, etc.) is a myth made for intellectually incurious white people from elsewhere who simply want to consume the country’s culture for leisure and entertainment. In reality, Cuba is suffering – especially as a result of the US trade embargo that began in 1958 – and the combination of its beauty and this struggle can be discerned in the intense sound of Rumba drums, as well as in the gazes that you notice in the streets, in people’s use of language, in the noise of everyday comings and goings, and in the Orishas, who rule the lives of their worshippers.

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PHOTOGRAPHY: Camila Falquez STYLING: Lorena Maza PRODUCTION ASSISTANT: Flor Yaneya Muñoz Oviedo SPECIAL THANKS: Flor Yaneya Muñoz Oviedo and family , Shayra Gonzales , Julio , Cari & Nilo, familia Trujillo

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BJARNE MELGAARD at Julia Stoschek Collection in cooperation with Acute Art, London. 12 October-15 December 2019 at JSC Berlin

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Drug-fuelled psychedelia, Britpop carnage and Andy Warholâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s hub of hedonism, we delve into the visual and musical languages created by artists while under the influence with illustrations from Bjarne Melgaard RESEARCH

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92 Drug-takers – or ‘druggies’ as they were nicknamed at school – I observed this outsider clique with intense fascination. Where were they going? What were they doing? How did they feel? In my teens, I half-heartedly joined in with some of their – err – activities. Though short-lived, it was an alluring counter to teenage boredom at the time. Similarly, contemporary artists and their attachment to the ‘D’ word, its pleasure and perils, have long been a source of wonderment. To quote Charles Dickens (a big fan of opium, FYI): “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times.” First, the majestic version. Sex! Drugs! Rock ‘n’ Roll! An iconic threesome that merged sound, spectacle and altered states of mind, unmoved by addiction and death (though, more on that later). I was born in 1991, just before the birth of Britpop, a time of Oasis, Spice Girls, ‘Common People’ … and yes, copious amounts of cocaine. Noel Gallagher, who spent £1 million on drugs before quitting in the lateNineties, is honest about the whole thing. In 2009, he reportedly told the Italian newspaper, Corriere della Sera, that, “Doing drugs is the most beautiful thing about being in a rock band.” Britpop was more than just about the music. It was a wave of cultural hysteria that intermingled with the worlds of fashion and art. Damien Hirst, a key figure in the London art scene, was a consumer and purveyor of Great British Drug Culture, both through his work (as in his series Medicine Cabinets [19882010], where collections of aesthetically pleasing pharmaceuticals are named after tracks from the Sex Pistols’ 1977 debut album) and his personal life (the artist’s alcohol and cocaine use is well-documented). A slice of this history of excess – or to put it another

way, ‘Cocaine: The Glory Years’ – is present in journalist Toby Young’s autobiography, How To Lose Friends And Alienate People (2001). It’s 1997, 11am at the Groucho Club in London’s Soho, and Toby is tasked with organising a ‘cool Britannia’ shoot for Vanity Fair magazine featuring Hirst and actor Keith Allen. So far, so normal(ish). According to Young, the story goes: “As soon as they got stuck into the vodka, Keith Allen and Damien Hirst started clamouring for cocaine so I called up a dealer I knew and had him deliver four grams. Would that be enough? Could I expense it? I had no idea. I felt like an ineffectual supply teacher presiding over a class of naughty schoolchildren. It didn’t help matters that I was dipping into the cocaine myself.” Cocaine has become a point of fascination for some artists. And usually for the worst as a way for alpha male artists to make a vague point. Rob Pruitt explored this drug-induced arrogance in his Cocaine Buffet, a 1998 group show in Manhattan’s Meatpacking District. A minimalist line of cocaine stretched across an elongated 16-foot mirror. “[People] didn’t know if it was baby powder or sugar or the real thing,” Pruitt told New York’s Observer. “The trepidation lasted for about an hour. Then, somebody fell to their knees. Then there were three brave souls. They broke the ice … And then it just became like a free-for-all.” While there’s a certain sexy haze around artists getting high, not all artists were using (or abusing) drugs in the same way. Example ‘A’: Andy Warhol’s infamous Silver Factory in Midtown Manhattan during the Sixties, a melting pot of artistic, sexual and narcotic experimentation that was later simply renamed ‘The Factory’ when it moved to the Decker Building. One of the reasons Warhol is said to have become addicted to amphetamines is so he could continue to work through the night rather than party. “He was a lunatic in a way,” writer George Plimpton notes in Ric Burns’ Andy Warhol: A Documentary Film (2006). “He controlled a whole bunch of people in the factory. There must have been 15 or 20 people there, a lot of them on their way down, destroyed people. Sort of a halfway house. Perhaps [that’s] what drove Andy to be in that position – a voyeur and to use these people for his art.”

Mushrooms quickly became an icon for experimental drug use. What would the psychedelic Sixties and Seventies have been without them?

ALL IMAGES Bjarne Melgaard, My Trip, 2019, Virtual Reality. Courtesy the artist and Acute Art, London

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Richard Bernstein, a darling of the burgeoning art world in Downtown New York in the Sixties and Seventies, painted this scene. His images depict celebutantes and drugs (his go-to? Quaaludes), transforming Grace Jones and co into dazzling Pop Art incarnations for Warhol’s Interview magazine, and creating fluorescent canvases of floating pills years before this was even considered an acceptable subject matter. Fast-forward to the late-Seventies/early-Eighties in New York, and there was a new bad boy of the art world taking over: Jean-Michel Basquiat. As a graffiti artist in Lower Manhattan, he started tagging with his friend Al Diaz under their shared moniker SAMO, short for ‘Same Old Shit’, a reference to the marijuana they smoked at the time. As his fame increased, he became addicted to heroin, the drug that he overdosed on at the age of 27 in his studio in 1988. As time has worn on, psychedelic style has extended beyond the narcotics that inspired it. “Drugs are no longer so exotic [or] taboo,” says Mike Jay, author of High Society: Mind-Altering Drugs in History and Culture (2010). “[They] can now be treated as a text or subject in their own right.” Take Fred Tomaselli’s kaleidoscopic Dead Eyed Bird Blast (1997) which references both hallucinogenic states and bird watching (a hobby of his), or Marina Abramović’s Rhythm 2 (1974), in which the artist ingested psychiatric medication to see if a state of unconsciousness could be achieved as part of a live performance piece (in short: yes, it can).

In 2014, !Mediengruppe Bitnik, an artist collective based in Zürich and London, debuted an installation entitled Random Darknet Shopper which demystified drug use in today’s ‘always-on’ digital era. Their ‘live mail’ art piece was an automated online shopping bot provided with a budget of $100 in Bitcoin per week. Items bought at random – and later displayed – included Lord of the Rings ebooks and 10 ecstasy pills. Divorcing these artists from their relationships with drugs is impossible. Like most tragic love stories, they are at once intoxicating and destructive, peppered with technicolour detail. For others, it was merely an experiment to push the boundaries in their practice. For The Beatles, hallucinogens helped them tap into hidden depths. Paul McCartney’s prescription for a happier planet? “It would mean a whole new world if the politicians would take LSD, there wouldn’t be any more war, poverty or famine.” Discuss …

RESEARCH

TRANCE

FASHION FASHION 96 96

GLOSSED GLOSSED PH. PH.ADRIENNE ADRIENNERAQUEL RAQUEL ST. ST.ALEXANDER ALEXANDERJULIAN JULIAN

108 108 MOVE MOVE FOR FOR ME ME PH. PH.FELICITY FELICITYINGRAM INGRAM ST. ST.LORENA LORENAMAZA MAZA 120 120 COUNTRY COUNTRYTALK TALK PH. PH.CARLY CARLYSCOTT SCOTT ST. ST.LUCI LUCIELLIS ELLIS 94

DRESS xx SHOES xx EARRINGS xx

Glossed

Photography by Adrienne Raquel

Styling by Alexander Julian 96

COAT R-13 BODY SUIT Aqua TIGHTS Calzedonia SHOES Chloe Gosselin

DRESS Off-White EARRINGS, GLOVES AND SHOES Moschino

DRESS Alexander McQueen TOP Hugo Boss SHOES Fendi

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DRESS AND SHOES Acne Studios EARRINGS AND RING Moschino TIGHTS Calzedonia

COAT Narciss DRESS Christian Siriano SHOES Chloe Gosselin

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TOTAL LOOK Max Mara

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COAT, TOP AND SHORTS Valentino VEST MarkGong Studio SHOES Vintage, stylistâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s own

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MAKE-UP: Raisa Flowers HAIR: Andrita Renee MODEL: Tricia Akello @ MUSE NYC PHOTO ASSISTANT: Valine Branna STYLIST ASSISTANTS: Chloe Lucan and Aidan Palermo

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Move For Me

Photography by Felicity Ingram

Styling by Lorena Maza 108

BROOCH Gucci SHIRTS Acne Studios, Ann Demeulemeester

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DRESS AND HAT Valentino CRYSTALS Swarovski

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TOP Marques â&#x20AC;&#x2122; Almeida CHAINMAIL MANTILLA Jose Quijano

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DRESS Jacquemus HAIRCLIP Simone Rocha

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JACKET AND NECKLACE Chanel EARRING Florence Tetier Bijoux

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SHIRT Acne Studios

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TURTLENECK Fendi

COAT Fendi TOP Skims SCRUNCHIE House of Lafayette

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MAKE-UP: Chiao-Li @ The Wall Group using Clé de Peau Beauté MAKEUP ASSISTANTS: Yueting Zhang and Snowkei Lan HAIR: José Quijano using Luster´s Pink and KareCare Haircare HAIR ASSISTANTS: Joel Philips and Anni Rademacher STYLING ASSISTANTS: Ivanna Heredia and Carl Tägert

JUMPER Helmut Lang TROUSERS MSGM HEADBAND AND BOW Henriette von Grunberg

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DRESS Jil Sander

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Country Talk

Photography by Carly Scott

TOTAL LOOK 4 Moncler Simone Rocha

Styling by Luci Ellis 120

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COAT AND SHOES Chanel

TOTAL LOOK Miu Miu

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DRESS Molly Goddard EARRINGS Sophie Billie Brahe

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DRESS Valentino BOOTS Fendi

COAT Simone Rocha SHOES Prada

STYLIST ASSISTANT: Lizzy Beh PHOTOGRAPHER ASSISTANT: Hannah Norton MAKE-UP: Gina Blondell using Urban Decay Cosmetics HAIR: Hiroshi Matsushita using Bumble and Bumble MODELS: Zhu @ M and P models, Nya @ Nevs MODEL CASTING: Caroline Mauger @ CM Casting PRODUCER: Leah Draws

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SLEEK ART

Vera Kochubey

The majority of Kochubey’s paintings take the form of heavily symbolic portraits, often combined with brash or existential statements such as “Have you figured this life out?” or “My true will can move mountains”. The style of painting is unapologetically primitive — “primal and raw” Kochubey confirms — and she maintains that their monumental, largescale “chose her”. Blunt, fat brushstrokes are applied to construct fierce faces reminiscent of ancient tribal masks, where jagged shapes and hypnotic vortex-like symbols take the place of eyes.

According to the artist, the mismatched features and vibrant colours have earned her paintings the nickname “Picasso on acid”. Kochubey regards her paintings to be expressive, symbolic and bold, but also to be a little bit “aggressive” — something which she relates to the “punk aspect” of her personality. “I believe that art is a very powerful tool to awake humans and to motivate them and snap them out of this mundane reality,” Kochubey tells SLEEK. “That’s what I want to do with my art: get out of the visual comfort zone. Not hyperreal but the opposite — a different reality, just different.” 128

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Coming into View

SLEEK likes BIRKENSTOCK

We road test Stefano Pilati’s Random Identities collection on the streets of Berlin

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Photography by Stini Röhrs

Styling by Lorena Maza

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All footwear by Birkenstock x Random Identities All fashion Random Identities

PHOTOGRAPHER: Stini Rรถhrs STYLIST: Lorena Maza HAIR & MAKE-UP: Susanna Jonas MODELS: Yuri Gagarina and Alec Joshua @ TIAD Agency, Javier Zamora @ SEEDS Management

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In the Frame

Photography by Sarah Blais

Actress Milena Tscharntke gets in the mood for accessorising high, not low, and poses for photographer Sarah Blais. Wearing ChanelÂ´s Cruise 2019/20 collection - the first one created by its new Artistic Director of Fashion collections, Virginie Viard SLEEK SLEEK likes likes CHANEL CHANEL

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Styling by Stefanie Klopf

ALL LOOKS AND MAKE-UP: Chanel

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Text by Angela Waters

Surfacing actress Milena Tscharntke is making her mark on film and TV with a slew of coming-of-age stories. In 2019, she won the annual German film and television award Goldene Kamera, as well as the Studio Hamburg award for young talent, accolades she believes has something to do with the way real emotions shine through on camera in an era fascinated by authenticity. “In a scene you can’t always be free and in the moment when you have to think about your lines or are unsure about your character, but I don’t exactly rehearse emotions,” says the 136

23-year-old star of German teen-drama Druck. “I don’t know if you can do that.” Tscharntke admits that for emotional scenes, she won’t let words leave her mouth until she is in the scene. For her, it’s these moments of truth that give television and film the edge over stage performance. “For me, the experiences I have on stage and in front of the camera can’t really be compared,” she says. “But I am more drawn towards filming. I like the intimacy between you and the camera, your colleagues and your film crew. I like how everybody works for one scene,

which you only shoot on that one day and then never again. You have this one shot. This makes me excited..” This intimacy-or-nothing mood extends to social media: “I don’t care that much. I think it‘s cool that you can give a little glimpse of what you are into at the moment and who you are as a person, but I think it should be fun.”

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STYLIST: Stefanie Klopf @ Nina Klein Agency TALENT: Milena Tscharntke @ Players Agentur MAKE-UP: Cynthia Baligan @ Nina Klein Agency HAIR: Philippe Baligan @ Nina Klein Agency PROP STYLIST: Miren Oller

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A Good Time

Gripped by the Italian designinfused, smokey-hazed Eighties cocktail party scene with Santos de Cartier watches

WATCH: Cartier Santos Dumont

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Photography by Caroline Fayette

Art Direction and Set Design by Marina Melentieva

WATCH: Santos de Cartier Chronograph

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WATCH: Cartier Santos Dumont

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WATCH: Cartier Santos Dumont CUFFLINKS: Cartier Double C BAG: Guirlande de Cartier Mini

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WATCH (left): Cartier Santos Dumont WATCH (right): Santos de Cartier Chronograph

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WATCH (left): Cartier Santos Dumont WATCH (right): Cartier Lighter

WATCH: Cartier Santos Dumont PERFUME: Cartier La Panthere

PHOTOGRAPHER: Caroline Fayette ART DIRECTION & SET DESIGN: Marina Melentieva HAIR, MAKE-UP & NAILS: Paloma Brytscha MODELS: Lena BrÃ¼ckner, and Javier Zamora @ Seeds Management

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Perfect Your Table Setting

Make like a Nineties-style homes magazine avid-reader and nail the perfect table setting for afternoon snacks with Turandot from the Rosenthal Heritage Collection

Rosenthal Turandot teapot and milk jug

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Photography by Lina Zangers

Set design by Miren Oller

Rosenthal Turandot teacup and Sambonet Party Fashion gold

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Rosenthal Turandot plate 18cm, champagne glass, red wine glass, white wine glass

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Rosenthal Turandot chopstick holder, Sambonet Bamboo PVD Gold

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Rosenthal Turandot plate 18cm

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Rosenthal Turandot mug with handle, espresso cup, champagne glass, tumbler

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Decked Out

Antje Peters creates a crop of surreal still lifes inspired by porcelain brand KPM Berlin

Photography by Antje Peters

LEFT KPM VASE WITH ROSETTE HANDLES BOOT: 032c BAG: Balenciaga @ The Store x Berlin KEYCHAIN: Off-White @ thestores.com

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THIS PAGE KPM KURLAND TO-GO MUGS SUNGLASSES: Dior SNEAKER: Adidas by Raf Simons @ The Store x Berlin CARDHOLDER: MCM

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PHOTOGRAPHER: Antje Peters @ Shotview Artists Management STYLIST: Ivanna Heredia

LEFT KPM FIGURINE APOLLO SUNGLASSES: Fendi @ matchesfashion.com BAG: Dior Men SNEAKER: Balenciaga

RIGHT KPM ROCAILLE CANDLE STICK, WITH BRESLAUER STADTSCHLOSS PATTERN GLOVE: Fendi @ matchesfashion.com BRACELET: Miansai NECKLACE: Dior Men

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Designs for Life

MINIâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s head designer talks to SLEEK about aesthetics, change and the first electric MINI ever

Photography by Peter Wolff

Text by Noa Niss

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In September 2017, Oliver Heilmer was appointed head of MINI design. Ever since he was a boy, the only thing the Munich native wanted to do was design cars. Today, that dream has become a reality, one that requires him to be dynamic and courageous as the automobile continues to change. Here, the 44-year-old discusses his take on design, aesthetics and sustainability, as well as the personalities that get behind the wheels of his cars.

A lot of cars today look bland and uniform, but MINI’s designs always stand out. How do you do it? It’s really because of Alec Issigonis, the man who originally designed the MINI. The brand has inherited his bravery and we’re carrying it into the future. Everyday we challenge ourselves on a new level.

Is it difficult to create an environmentally friendly car? As a designer, you are constantly thinking about solutions. It is challenging to build a car, as you can imagine, a lot goes on. But we’re always working on sustainable solutions for the MINI brand.

also shaped by education, geographic location, experience, etc. In our daily work, we listen to our ‘designer instinct’. What’s important, in that instance, is dialogue – the exchange of thoughts and opinions in an open and active way. Through this, attractive and coherent products emerge.

Do you think a brand has to change constantly? How do you deal with change in general? MINI to me is change. Designers are a natural born curious “species”. Change is our daily business. I’m not afraid of the future or changes per se. The opposite: I’m looking forward to it.

Today, the term ‘aesthetics’ commonly denotes a synthesis of art, nature and perception, but what does it mean to you?

MINI’s cars don’t just transport people, they create memories and emotions. But what sort of personalities do you envisage driving them? It’s very diverse and individual. For MINI, what’s important is that our customers can express their personalities through our products. It’s about self-confidence and the relationship they have between themselves and their MINI.

Yes, you’re right. But next to this, a certain ‘aesthetic sense’ is

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Text by Hannah Hummel Born in Zurich, raised in Cape Town and now living in Munich, Monteiro has had a unique life. Having completed a degree in London, the 32-year-old artist originally lived in Essen where he received a postgrad in product and industrial design before leaving to travel the world. Upon his return to Germany, however, he began to realise his dream of becoming a painter. Inaugurating his career in the modest confines of his Munich kitchen, Monteiro initially painted directly with his hands, squeezing whole bottles of paint onto his palms to create his portraits. Eventually, he sought out a studio which led him to found Paint Kitchen, the art space in Munich where his creativity runs wild with Cordon Bleu flare.

Creative Drive

Much like Monteiro’s innovative style, the CUPRA Ateca defies convention, offering sophistication, quality assurance and technological longevity in an expertly crafted hybrid of an SUV and a sports car. With its unique design and revolutionary aesthetic, the vehicle is the perfect choice for a creative forging their own path. Behind the wheel of CUPRA’s flagship model, Monteiro steers us through the places in Munich that spur his imagination.

Munich-based artist Monteiro Hasse takes the CUPRA Ateca for a spin via his favourite places in his adopted hometown

Photography by Max Rempe

Kraftstoffverbrauch CUPRA Ateca 2.0 TSI 4Drive, 221 kW (300 PS): innerorts 8,9, außerorts 6,5, kombiniert 7,4 l/100 km; CO2-Emissionen: kombiniert 168 g/km. CO2-Effizienzklasse: D. Abbildung zeigt Sonderausstattung

TALENT: Monteiro Hasse PRODUCTION: Christian Bracht SPECIAL THANKS: Brenner Grill, Museum Brandhorst, Paint Kitchen

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ENGLISCHER GARTEN In order to reconnect with the natural world while living in the city, Monteiro finds moments of calm and reflection in Munich’s Englischer Garten, one of the largest parks in the world. A mere seven minute wander from his home, the green space provides a refuge for the artist to breathe, let the outside world go and collect his thoughts. Having grown up in Cape Town, Monteiro says he needs to surround himself with nature, something he feels able to do even in the heart of Munich thanks to this leafy expanse.

BRENNER GRILL

PAINT KITCHEN

Formerly the stables of Munich’s royal palace, the Brenner Grill is where the artist goes to for social stimulation. Featuring a cafe, a restaurant and a bar, the Grill is all things to all people, and naturally attracts a diverse clientele. Monteiro remarks that its customers come from all walks of life, from inquisitive tourists to businessmen on working lunch and tattooed punks sipping champagne. Beer in hand, he is often found in these historic chambers conversing with Brenner Grill’s eclectic patrons.

The name of Monteiro’s studio, Paint Kitchen, combines his two life passions, food and art. Since he earns his living through the latter, the Munich resident finds relief in the former, which he describes as his main hobby. Food enriches his life, he says, and it is no surprise that the culinary arts have influenced his practice, too. Broadly speaking, Monteiro’s output can be divided into two categories. On the one hand, there are his abstract portraits, an emotional outlet allowing him to explore humanity’s imperfections while celebrating life in all its diversity. Working like an indulgent cook, Monteiro splurges on thick layers of paint to illuminate the multiple levels of our emotions. Conversely, his other works employ a chef’s subtlety by delicately evoking memories of childhood. Depicting teddy bears, unicorns, rubber ducks and other toys, these works of art are created with the sole intention of making people happy, and incite a sense of nostalgia in their audience.

MUSEUM BRANDHORST When he’s not creating his own masterpieces, Monteiro spends his time browsing Museum Brandhorst’s collection of modern and contemporary art, drawing inspiration from its installations. Intrigued by colour and texture, the artist often returns to examine paintings and images by Cy Twombly to Basquiat and Monika Baer to Alex Katz, among others. Although the ideas for his own artworks often begin intuitively, Monteiro invigorates his practice through a studied appreciation of how others combine different palettes.

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Paying homage to the homeland of the agave spirit

Photographer Arnaud Juherian captures sights of Mexico in new Art of Patrón exhibition

Text by Hannah Hummel

Photography by Arnaud Juherian

These days, Tequila is so much more than salt and lime - increasingly, it stands for an upscale drinking culture enriched in tradition, heritage and passion. Much more than a mere shot opportunity, the agave nectar yields an incomparable aroma field that boasts a lifetime of connection to the people. Award-winning photographer Arnaud Juherian travels from the boulevards of Paris to the streets of Guadalajara, Mexico, to photograph the homeland of the sought-after spirit for an Munich-based exhibition that launches on 5 December. Juherian is a French photographer based in Paris, whose work takes him all over the world—from Paris and Detroit to Buenos Aires and Tokyo, his images capture the essence of humanity in a variety of street art works from across the globe. For the launch of the Art of Patrón exhibition, Juherian captures the heart of the Mexican city with a candid approach that documents the everyday lives of the city’s inhabitants, showcasing the heart and soul

of the Patrón community. Although Patrón Tequila has become one of the most famous and respected luxury spirit brands in the world, it is still being used exclusively in the small original batches and with consistent commitment to quality and craftsmanship. In its own special way, it is a work of art cherished by Tequila lovers all over the world for its premium quality and sustainable production. The 100% Blue Weber Agave and hand signed bottles are some of the many qualities making Patrón Tequila a real treasure. From an abundance of cacti plants to lovers embracing in the bustling streets, Juherian’s photography catalogues the nuances of daily life in the Mexican city. Highlights include revealing and beautiful portraits of the locals in vibrant technicolour as they partake in their grocery shopping, dog-walking and music playing. To gain immersive insight into the inner workings of the homeland of Patrón, you can see the exhibition at the Lazy Gallery in Munich from

5 December 2019 to 10 January 2020. Corneliusstraße 46, 80469 Munich.

Patrón Paloma speciality cocktail

50ml Patrón Reposado 15ml fresh lime juice 1 pinch of salt Stir all of the ingredients in a highball glass. Fill the remainder of the glass with grapefruit lemonade and garnish with a piece of grapefruit.

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On Top of Time

The premiere models of Glashütte Original’s Spezialist Collection are created with adventure in mind, fusing quality with innovation in the SeaQ Panorama Date, a timepiece specifically tailored for living life on the edge Photography by Antje Peters

CUPRA

A T E C A

WE BELIEVE IN DESTINATION, NOT DESTINY. When we created a sport SUV with 221 kW (300 HP), DSG Automatic Gearbox and 4Drive, we were not following the crowd. When we crafted each detail inside and out, we were not taking an easy road. When we chose to have 19-inch alloy wheels in copper1, we didn’t settle for the standards. We only knew. Not what we would find along the way, but exactly where we wanted to go. And here we are. Made for those who create their own path. 1

Optional.

Fuel Consumption CUPRA Ateca 2.0 TSI 4Drive, 221 kW (300 HP): urban 8,9, extra urban 6,5, combined 7,4 l/100 km; CO 2 Emissions: combined 168 g/km. CO 2 Efficiency Class: D. CUPRAOFFICIAL.DE

#CreateThePath

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The Big Five

German giants of fashion and porcelain, BOSS and Meissen, collaborate on a fashion collection inspired by Africa’s wildlife

Images courtesy of BOSS

Text by Hannah Hummel

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Recognised across the globe for their dedication to craftsmanship and style, German brand Meissen has been celebrated as Europe’s leading porcelain manufacturer since the company was founded in 1710. A pioneer of stylistic innovation for over 300 years, it is now collaborating with BOSS on a fashion collection combining passion, quality and creativity that’s 100% ‘Made in Germany’. Inspired by Meissen’s celebrated Big Five figurines depicting a quintet of famous African animals, the capsule collection encapsulates the porcelain company’s trademark blend of past and present. Esteemed for their mastery in embedding forward-thinking design in tradition, Meissen incorporate their rich trove of historical inspirations into this fresh collaboration. The range includes both casual and formal pieces for men and women, all in monochrome. Bringing the collection to life are the five animal motifs which appear in embroidered, jacquard and printed form throughout. The Big Five collection, designed by sculptor Maximilian Hagstotz, features the African lion, leopard, elephant, rhino and buffalo. These majestic beasts are depicted in an angular design inspired by traditional African wooden sculptures, and each animal’s unique features are accentuated by a black and white pattern. Meissen’s creations are replete with symbolic powers – the animals, according to BOSS, embodying ideas of longevity and strength. Meissen’s famously intricate handicraft is interwoven throughout the bespoke collection, highlights of which include a pure cashmere sweater featuring a lion and intarsia knitting, and a mercerised cotton T-shirt with a tonal lion print. The elegant silk jacquard ties, pocket squares, embroidered shirts and tailoring – a nod to Meissen’s exclusivity – offer inspired opportunities for formal and evening wear. Five limited-edition porcelain mugs will also be available in BOSS and Meissen stores around the globe. Furthermore, in recognition of the collaboration’s inspiration, BOSS will make a donation to the charity, Elephants for Africa, which works to conserve the species. It is a testament to the expertise of both brands that the unified

style of a single series has been seamlessly incorporated into this unique collection. The integration of Meissen’s heritage with BOSS’ innovative tailoring offers a set of modern, stylish garments – an ode to tradition while striving for the new.

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French New Wave

Only Paris’ growing techno scene can rival the hybrid BMW i8 coupe for sustainable innovation, style and elegance

Text by Hannah Hummel

Photography by Wilfried Wulff

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The Parisian electro scene plays host to the new BMW i8 coupe, a car powered by both petrol and electricity that delivers a futuristic drive with avant-garde styling. Roaming the stately boulevards of Paris by night, the Ultimate Sophisto Edition of this vehicle is an easy fit for the city’s ultra-cool electronic scene. Its slick look is complemented by the special designs of the E-Copper and incorporated Shadow Line editions, igniting the model with a charisma that matches the intriguing atmosphere of the French capital’s party scene. Over the years, Paris’ relationship with electronic music has taken many forms. In the Nineties, it produced a distinct French House sound with acts like Daft Punk hosting a number of exclusive and underground raves in clubs like Le Palace and the Rex. Rising gentrification in the Noughties led to the city’s nightlife being overshadowed by its continental neighbours, Berlin and Amsterdam, but in recent years, the Gallic metropolis has fostered a musically and culturally diverse party scene. Local collectives work

to recreate a modern French version of the raves that, 20 years ago, were regarded as temporary celebrations of freedom and social diversity. Experimentation with artistic dimensions has created an after-dark landscape encompassing house, techno, world music, theatre, circus and the visual arts. Technologically advanced, just like the i8 coupe, Paris’ Electro scene promises a beacon of upbeat vibes charged with an electrifying atmosphere that keeps its ravers dancing long after the sun rises. The city’s biggest clubs – the Rex, Raspoutine, La Java – play host to the dark and intriguing parties that leave the city quivering in their wake. With a party scene that’s more enlightened than ever before, Paris’ nightlife offers an electric sanctuary to its visitors. The same can be said for the i8 coupe, which guarantees an inimitable combination of driving pleasure and sustainability – a hybrid electric car for an electric night.

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Time Flies

SLEEK SLEEK SLEEK SLEEK SLEEK SLEEK

Chopard’s new sports watch is not only inspired by the strength and beauty of the Alps – it’s trying to preserve them, too

The new Alpine Eagle sports watch collection from Chopard is a stateof-the-art reinterpretation of the St Moritz, a timepiece created in 1980 by Karl-Friedrich Scheufele, heir to the family business. At the time, the St Moritz was the first watch Chopard had ever made from steel, a major innovation for the company, who had previously exclusively specialised in gold- and diamond-set watches. A keen skier, Karl-Friedrich wanted a watch that he could take down the slopes without worrying about damaging its expensive components, and so the

rugged St Moritz was born. Over the next decade, the timepiece gained such popularity that it became one of the brand’s bestsellers. Alpine Eagle, a reimagining of the St Moritz, is made especially for overachieving, ambitious men whose ideas inspire and elevate the lives of others. With foresight and determination, they act on the most important challenges of today, climate change being no exception. Indeed, it was Herr Scheufele’s passion for the Swiss Alps – and the protection of the environment where the Alpine eagle reigns

supreme – that led him to found the charity, Eagle Wings. An innovative and multidisciplinary environmental project, the organisation aims to help preserve the Alpine landscape and its inhabitants, from its glaciers to its local wildlife – birds of prey included. As such, the revival of the Alpine Eagle, a watch whose tough yet refined design is influenced by the power and grace of its namesake, has been timed to coincide with the launch of Eagle Wings in order to raise awareness of the charity’s endeavours.

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Alpine Eagle Large 41 mm, mechanical movement with automatic winding, Chopard 01.01-C

Image courtesy of Chopard

Subvert the stocking filler tradition with a political hoody. To honour the 30th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall, SLEEK wants to raise awareness about the cultural divides that are still relevant today, and in light of this we have created two limited edition sweaters. The proceeds will make a contribution to Save The Children DE, supporting young refugees around the world.

€69 www.sleekmagazine. myshopify.com

Better Living through Technology

E-BIKES

Although some things need a human touch, a plethora of activities benefit from electronic assistance. From cycling to keeping your home, clothes and body clean and fresh, here are some of the best high-tech life hacks

There is a reason that this type of city bicycle is so popular. Ideally, we would all be capable of cycling with the ease of a Parisian New Wave star, but in reality, a morning cycle can be stressful and strenuous. Although these motor-assisted bikes don’t offer the same workout, not every journey has to be a Herculean effort – sometimes you simply want to get from point ‘A’ to point ‘B’.

With the increasing popularity of handmade items and retrotechnology, ‘automation’ has become a dirty word. Nevertheless, while beautiful objects like wicker baskets and analogue photographs have become coveted, there remain tasks that are impossible without the appropriate gadgets – like whipped cream, for example. Looking beyond functionality, certain activities are only enjoyable, in fact, once the legwork is taken out of them. Here are some of the technologically enhanced ‘easy versions’ that make life better.

AUTOMATED FLOOR CLEANERS

LEFT: Photography by Caroline Fayette

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ABOVE: Photography by Christian Werner

Since Instagram became ubiquitous, the pressure to keep your living environment presentable increased 10 fold. Still, most of us work too much to keep our homes spotless at all times. While mindfulness and minimalist gurus often preach the virtues of cleaning as meditation, for those of us who can’t find joy in it, there are automated vacuums and mops that can do the job while you are out, leaving free time for other spiritual pursuits.

IQOS

SMART TOOTHBRUSH

Smoking is not the best habit – giving it up is easier said than done – yet there are increasingly more options for quitting. The plume of smoke has often been romanticised, but the smell of cigarettes in your hair, clothes and on your furniture is something most people could do without. IQOS uses a type of heating technology that warms without burning tobacco, creating vapour that won’t sink its way into porous materials.

Brushing your teeth morning and night is a Sisyphean effort, a necessary daily task to prevent rot and decay – which is why it can seem unbearably dull. Although you can brush away with a standard toothbrush, it can be nice to have a little digital feedback. Smart toothbrushes let you know sooner than your biannual check-up whether you are actually doing it right or wasting your time. 177

Dublin in Five Points

The Irish capital is quickly emerging as one of Europe’s most vibrant hotspots, combining tradition with forward-thinking dynamism. The newly opened Roe & Co distillery in the iconic Guinness Power House is the perfect example of old meets new, updating Irish whiskey for a new generation

Image courtesy of Roe & Co

MONTEIRO HASSE

To inquire about the artworks, visit sleek-mag.com or call +49 30288867516 MONTEIRO HASSE, Summer Tan, 2017, Munich

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FOOD Having only opened its doors in summer 2018, Groundstate Coffee, near the famous Guinness Storehouse at St James’ Gate, has quickly forged a name for itself as one of the most popular weekend brunch spots in the city. Enjoy a host of vegan and vegetarian options alongside updated classics such as a croque madame, as well as a citrus-infused French toast. For a mix of street food – and for a fancy supper – Hang Dai, a dimly lit discotheque-esque Chinese restaurant, is a must. ART The Project Arts Centre, located in the heart of the city’s busy Temple Bar district, is an ideal place for anyone interested in the latest in culture. Showcasing contemporary art exhibitions,

fringe theatre and dance performances, the space is a hub for experimental art. Elsewhere, the Irish Museum of Modern Art located in the historic grounds of the Royal Hospital Kilmainham is a must-see for any modern and contemporary art lovers. PARTY Head to Mother, the city’s beloved alternative queer club situated in Temple Bar for a kaleidoscopic mixture of synths, electonica and disco. Meanwhile, for a reliable night of techno and house music – with Japanese food in the mix – Yamamori Tengu and Yamamori Izakaya are stalwarts of the city’s vibrant clubbing scene. DISCOVER You can’t visit Ireland without sampling one of the local whis-

keys – an experience made all the better if you get the chance to see how it’s made. Roe & Co is the newest blended Irish whiskey to hit the shelves, offering a tantalising combination of sweet and spicy orchard fruits laced with woody vanilla. Inspired by Dublin’s Thomas Street Distillery, founded by Peter Roe in 1757 (an enterprise that thrived during Irish whiskey’s 19th century golden era but which did not survive the export slump during prohibition in America between 1920 and 1933), Roe & Co are opening their doors once again. The distillery, now located in the Guinness Brewery’s former Power House building in Dublin’s southwest Liberties neighbourhood, is open to the public for tours and flavour workshops.

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Fashion Index

4 Moncler Simone Rocha

Acne Studios Aqua Acqua di Parma adidas by Raf Simons Alexander McQueen Ann Demeulemester

BMW BOSS Bacardi Balenciaga Belvedere Vodka Birkenstock

CUPRA Calzedonia Cartier Chanel Chloe Gosselin Chopard Chopova Lowena Christian Siriano Clé de Peau Beauté

Dior Men

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lemon, petitgrain and patchouli. Since their 1916 inception, Acqua di Parma have stood as a symbol of Italian elegance. The “Luce di Colonia” candle is no different; a fresh fragrance that combines quality with style, this gift has got you covered. Subscribe now to receive yours.

Ernesto Naranjo

Fendi Florence Tétier Bijoux Floyd

Givenchy Glashütte Gucci

Helmut Lang Henriette von Grünberg House of Lafayette

Off-White

Palomo Spain Pattern Chineso Paul Smith Prada

Jacquemus Jil Sander

R-13 Random Identities Rick Owens Roe & Co Rosenthal Ruinart

IQOS

KPM Berlin Kenzo KeraCare

Louis Vuitton Luster’s PINK

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The Store Thebe Mugugu

Uniqlo

Valentino Vivienne Westwood

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Technology Bubble

As its 300th anniversary approaches, champagne house Ruinart celebrates with the first of a series of artistic collaborations deep in its famous cellars

Comprised of Maya Mouawad and Cyril Laurier, these pioneering artists have successfully integrated video-mapping technology and artificial intelligence into their art, creating pieces that are both fascinating and cutting edge. True to form, their work for Ruinart is a heady mix of technology and art. Entitled Retour Aux Sources (‘back to the source’), the large-scale installation looks and grows like a grape vine thanks to innovative technology and artificial intelligence. Housed in Ruinart’s

Inspired by the Seventies skateboarding culture of Venice Beach, Floyd’s new suitcase for on-the-go travel features bold, authentic design and an optimistic colour palette for those with a stylish flair

Photography by Max D’orsogna

Image courtesy of Ruinart

It may be the oldest established champagne house in the world, but Ruinart is thinking about the future. To celebrate the 10-year countdown to the brand’s 300th anniversary, Ruinart have launched the series Art Connected with the Living World. In a scheme that will further develop the champagne maker’s established connection to the art world, Ruinart will launch a new artistic collaboration each year for the next decade. Initiating the campaign is French duo, Mouawad Laurier.

On the Go

38-metre-deep chalk cellar, Mouawad Laurier’s creation reacts to its environment, changing its colour and brightness in accordance to external conditions. The result is a work which challenges our perceptions of art, blurring the boundaries between nature and culture. Moreover, watching Retour Aux Sources steadily adapt to its surroundings proves oddly poetic – the perfect introduction to Ruinart’s innovative scheme and the brand’s consistent commitment to nature.

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CABINET 185 OLGA DE LA IGLESIA

Accepting negative emotions as part of our reality causes us to suffer less, here: sadness, anger, envy, loneliness, joy and love, finally come together with balance

Photography by Olga de la Iglesia

194 CLAIRE BARROW 210 LAST WORD ANDRÃ&#x2030; ACIMAN 184

CLOCKWISE SOCKS: Paul Smith PUFF JACKET AND PANTS: Moncler WHITE SHIRT: Givenchy COAT AND SHOES: Kenzo HEADPIECE: Ernesto Naranjo DRESS: Ernesto Naranjo TOTAL LOOK: Palomo Spain

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COAT AND SHOES Kenzo HEADPIECE Ernesto Naranjo

187 CABINET 186 CABINET

DRESS Made by Stylist BAG Kenzo SHOES Vivienne Westwood, Pattern Chineso

189 CABINET 188 CABINET

SUIT Vivienne Westwood

191 CABINET 190 CABINET

STYLIST: Stephania Yepes ART DIRECTOR: Cristina Ramos Atelier HAIR: Tricia Field para GHD & Kevin Murphy MAKE-UP: Gloria Rico PHOTOGRAPHY ASSISTANTS: Raquel Gueuse and Nora Fonolla STYLING ASSISTANT: Dana Silva

ART DIRECTOR ASSISTANTS: Mario Serrano, AdriÃ Escribano and Indra Zabala MAKEUP ASSISTANT: Joyce Olivera HAIR ASSISTANT: Mariona Botella TALENTS: Michelle Ichofe @ Mad Models, Leonora Schnog @ Francina Models, Timi Disa and David Louis @ Blare Management STREET CASTING: Lu Gao

CAPE Louis Vuitton SHOES Pattern Chineso ACCESSORIES Made by Stylist

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CABINET

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In a broken down city without the internet, people use birds to send messages. She just wants to get to the club in peace, but thereâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s so much menace lurking on the ground. To avoid it: she glides from building to building, feet dangling over the dark metropolis. But thereâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s always someone watching when you look this hot. Multidisciplinary artist Claire Barrow pens a cartoon set in an imaginary dystopian city, where even mundane things such as going out for the night are rendered strange and extreme.

The Last Word

Call me By Your Name, 2017, directed by Luca Guadagnino. Distrubuted by Sony Pictures Classics

The author of Call Me By Your Name on writing a sequel to a story that has taken on a life of its own

When André Aciman published his novel Call Me By Your Name about 17-year-old Elio Perlman’s Italian summer romance with his father’s doctoral student intern, Oliver, in 2007, it was met with rave reviews. But a decade later when Timothé Chalamet and Armie Hammer embodied the lovers on the silver screen, in director Luca Guadagnino’s 2017 film of the same title, the book finally landed on the bestseller list as Elio and Oliver became household names. The public fell in love with the characters of Call Me By Your Name and have become invested in their lives, making any attempt to revisit them high-risk . Aciman speaks about the experience of publishing Find Me, which catches up with the couple 20 years after their initial relationship in Lombardy. There are those who can’t wait for a sequel – or whatever passes for a sequel, because Find Me is not really a sequel – and others who will miss the exact tensions you had between Elio and Oliver in Call Me By Your Name and they might be miffed or disappointed. But this is the book that I really wanted to do. I had started many times with versions of Elio after the breakup – Elio at 20 or 22, and it never worked. What worked for me was starting with the father and then gradually working towards when Elio shows up at the end of that particular scene. It made the whole relationship with the father mean more to me, so I stuck with that. After trying various incarnations of the story, I started this particular one in 2016, before the movie came out, and it just went from there. A few pages after I started writing, I said, ‘This better be about the father.’ He is on his way to Rome for a lecture and will eventually meet his son. I finished it much after the movie came out. LAST WORD

The movie really didn’t have much to do with the new story. I just wanted to fill those years in-between, because I had rushed through those years initially when I wrote the book in 2005. I wanted to go back and plot those moments in-between 15 and 20 years later. It is not going to be Timmy and it is not going to be Armie – the characters are almost 20 years older and they are very different and their personalities have changed. Elio is quieter and Oliver goes from being this gregarious man to become a bit more timid and self-effacing and wondering why he is not the buoyant person he used to be. He used to have an easy time seducing people, now he has to fantasise about them. If someone wants to make a movie, fine. I’m never going to quibble with their decisions on what to cut and what to show. I write a novel that fulfils something that is necessary for me, I don’t think of what the readership wants or what the movie will be like. 210

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