Neue Luxury is a global dialogue on luxury in the 21st century.

• TODOMUTA

  Design for life

  Todomuta are Laura Molina and Sergio Herrera - a couple in every sense of the word. Together they forge a resolute path, exploring the outer realms of disparate design and non-conformist art. It's hard to define exactly what it is they do, but the joy of their output lies in an irreverent and often random approach.

• LEBBEUS WOODS

  Experimental Architecture

  My first encounter with Lebbeus Woods was in 2004 when the confusion of 9/11 was still pervasive. His book Radical Reconstructions (1997), fell open into my hands. It was staggering. These prescient constructions revealed something that hadn’t yet happened when the book was published.

• KAIMIN

  Yin & Yang

  In this nicotine-stained café, once the preserve of market workers and late-night hustlers, there are black boys with pink hair talking fashion to white girls with Afros. “She’s beyond amazing,” declares a wild-eyed youth describing his latest discovery. “It’s like Lang on acid—sick and beautiful and completely NOW!” Beyond this scenario, lurking in the corner, sits legendary American photographer Annie Leibovitz—chic and understated, but surveying the room with a frosty antipathy. Paris Fashion Week is in full flow, and people are watching.

• Mike Amiri

  Appetite for destruction

  There’s something distinctly American about Mike Amiri, a sense that anything is possible and nothing is unattainable. Channeling Jim Morrison’s nonchalant sex-appeal or Axl Rose’s defiantly messy style, Amiri’s collection is a homage to the grunge aesthetic of 1980s and 1990s Los Angeles. And while rock star glam has long inspired designers from Jean-Paul Gaultier and Karl Lagerfeld to Hedi Slimane and Marc Jacobs, Amiri’s quintessentially Californian vision is both laid back and extravagant, with a level of artisanship that has distinguished his coveted label in the luxury market.

• ALEXANDER MCQUEEN

  McQueen & I

  London 2010. St Paul’s Cathedral, squeezed into the city like a relegated old timer, remains to these eyes, design at its most daring. It’s a fitting location for Alexander McQueen’s memorial service: grand, awe-inspiring, immortal; but also a disturbing reminder that things have come to this. Lee—for he was Lee to me—would have hated it: the crowds, the silence, the poignant, solemn atmosphere. Yet in a wonderfully reflective way, both man and building have managed to capture the architectural zeitgeist.

• NICOLA FORMICHETTI

  From the faculty of misfits

  Nicola Formichetti never met Andy Warhol—their lifespans overlapped by ten years—but refers to the American artist as his “dream teacher”. Their post-mortem union transpired when Formichetti launched the Welcome to Diesel World exhibition in Melbourne in March of 2016, where Warhol’s high-gloss albeit chilled paintings of cultural icons were hanging in a major gallery. The pair’s parallels are simple: children of working class parents whose imaginations fought to keep up with the prodigious rate of artistic output.

• VIKTOR&ROLF

  Fashion Artists

  I’m posing questions to Dutch fashion designers Viktor Horsting and Rolf Snoeren that are a little more searching than most. Instead of asking about their hit fragrance, Flowerbomb (one bottle sold every three minutes), or their private relationship (former partners, now platonic—for the record), I’m plundering sociology, anthropology, in fact, any-ology I can muster.

• HERON PRESTON

  The cult of internetwear

  Heron Preston, the eponymous label of the San Francisco born former Nike marketing man, is one of the buzziest names taking the fashion world by storm. With experience working with Yeezy and Off-White, Preston’s utilitarian military-meets-sportswear garb is catnip for today’s youth.

• LOTTA VOLKOVA

  The tastemaker

  I have a distinct memory of the Russian stylist Lotta Volkova from London clubland in the early noughties. Casting models for Katie Grand’s Pop magazine, I frequently scoured the underground in search of arresting individuals and found this strange looking creature throwing shapes on a podium at Kashpoint, Matthew Glamorre’s alt-scene one-nighter in Soho. This was the club of choice for delinquent denizens, outré fashion students and those who revelled in the gloriously messed-up aesthetic of the day.

• WHERE RIVERS RUN

  Eventually all things merge into one

  At once mystical, romantic and heroic, rivers have captured our imaginations and informed our mythologies for centuries. As powerful symbols of renewal and change, it is timely that we take to the LA River and discover fashion’s new undercurrent—those reframing luxury through a lens of youth culture, artisanship and creativity. This is a place where rivers run deep and where all things merge into one.

• Off-White

  The youth will always win

  Since its launch in 2013, Virgil Abloh’s Milan-based label Off-White has helped storm the luxury barricades, not to destroy but to liberate. Named after the colour of a blank canvas, Abloh’s streetwear has taken its place beside venerated luxury brands such as Ralph Lauren, Gucci and Saint Laurent—but with a philosophy that has carved its own niche into the fashion world.

• MARTIN MARGIELA

  Deconstructing to reconstruct

  Margiela did things differently, from a distance, without branding himself a celebrity. His designs and their anti-perfectionist stance were an antidote to the slick glamour and party-girl artifice of the day. His were statement clothes, emboldened by art, and delicately ‘unfinished’. They were the future.

• Mike Amiri

  Appetite for destruction

  There’s something distinctly American about Mike Amiri, a sense that anything is possible and nothing is unattainable. Channeling Jim Morrison’s nonchalant sex-appeal or Axl Rose’s defiantly messy style, Amiri’s collection is a homage to the grunge aesthetic of 1980s and 1990s Los Angeles. And while rock star glam has long inspired designers from Jean-Paul Gaultier and Karl Lagerfeld to Hedi Slimane and Marc Jacobs, Amiri’s quintessentially Californian vision is both laid back and extravagant, with a level of artisanship that has distinguished his coveted label in the luxury market.

• JERRY LORENZO

  Influence & process

  Standing at the nexus of function and style is LA designer Jerry Lorenzo, whose streetwear label Fear of God is an authentic representation of today’s diverse youth culture. Regularly referred to as a ‘cult leader’ his engagement with a digital audience has inspired a community of avid fashion proselytes. Neue Luxury is proud to present an interview series with Jerry Lorenzo about his cult-label Fear of God.

• VIVIENNE WESTWOOD

  Vivienne & I

  Andreas Kronthaler’s first words to me come in the form of playful admonishment. “Are you being naughty?” he asks. He’s caught me trying on hats in the showroom of Vivienne Westwood’s Paris HQ, and arches an eyebrow in mock-disapproval. This imposing figure, all d’Artagnan hair and baggy trousers, cocks his head slightly, but I’m sizing him up too.

• POWER PLAY

  Where worlds collide

  In a world dominated by prejudice and judgement, we take the time to celebrate those who overcome the constraints and limitations of everyday life, move beyond the pragmatics of function and embrace a world of emotion, creativity, aesthetics and the sacred. A world where soft lines meet structured silhouettes, pleats embrace prints and power succumbs to play. 

  Photography Ribal Hosn, Styling Gadir Rajab, Hair Kyye Reed, Makeup Justin Henry, Art Direction 3 Deep, Models Em-Jay & Cellina ZAAR-mgt.

• KENZO

  Eye of the tiger

  On a cold January evening in Paris, Carol Lim and Humberto Leon presented their Autumn/Winter 2017 collection for the luxury label Kenzo. The collection—a mix of arctic surfing combined with urban style—was typical Kenzo style; colour loud and prints bold. But what really set this show apart, was how the entire backstage area was laid bare.

• BOUCHRA JARRAR

  A new era

  Whip thin with a blunt fringe and poker straight black hair, Bouchra Jarrar cuts a demure figure in the airy, beige surrounds of her Rue du Faubourg Saint-Honoré office, dotted with succulent plants and modernist furniture. Mere months after taking the role of women’s creative director at the house of Lanvin (following Alber Elbaz’s abrupt departure), she couldn’t seem calmer—surrounded by candid backstage images of her Spring/Summer 2017 runway show, the label’s first to take place in the gilded halls of the Hôtel de Ville in Paris.

• MANOLO BLAHNÍK

  Function, necessity, frivolity

  Manolo lives for beauty. He is the Proust of shoes,” states André Leon Talley former Vogue editor-at-large in an interview with The New Yorker. High praise indeed, but as the designer of some of the world’s most covetable footwear, Manolo Blahník, is deserving. Blahník is a craftsman with intimate knowledge on the geometry of a shoe, in particular the precision and balance required of a high heel.

• ALEXANDER MCQUEEN

  McQueen & I

  London 2010. St Paul’s Cathedral, squeezed into the city like a relegated old timer, remains to these eyes, design at its most daring. It’s a fitting location for Alexander McQueen’s memorial service: grand, awe-inspiring, immortal; but also a disturbing reminder that things have come to this. Lee—for he was Lee to me—would have hated it: the crowds, the silence, the poignant, solemn atmosphere. Yet in a wonderfully reflective way, both man and building have managed to capture the architectural zeitgeist.

• WOMEN OF INFLUENCE

  Neue Selects

  As we enter a period of tectonic change for gender equality, we reflect on some of the most powerful women across fashion, culture and the arts—from the creatively audacious Anna Dello Russo to the mysterious Elena Ferrante. We take a look at how these influential women have harnessed their talents to stimulate change, inspire creativity and reconstruct notions of gender.

• BALENCIAGA

  Shaping Fashion

  Described by legendary fashion photographer Cecil Beaton as ‘fashion’s Picasso’, and heralded as one of the most innovative and influential fashion designers of the 20th century, Spanish born designer Cristóbal Balenciaga challenged convention with his extraordinary pattern cutting and audacious silhouettes, yet he remains surrounded by a sense of mystery.

• HALSTON

  A world of youth, beauty and glamour

  In the 1970s, Halston was the go to designer for the luminaries of New York society. Tall, handsome, charismatic, daring and impeccably dressed in his signature black turtleneck, Halston exuded style and elegance ahead of his time. The visionary instinctively knew how to dress a woman using a ‘less is more’ approach.

• FASHION ICONS AND INFLUENCERS

  Neue Selects

  In every generation, there are just a handful of luminaries who seek to redefine mainstream concepts of fashion, beauty, art and design. Their creative influence enables us to track the tectonic shifts of our cultural, social and political landscapes, while reminding us that every great dream begins with a dreamer.

• FEAR OF GOD

  Cult following

  Fear of God’s cardinal rule is that the simplest solution will often be the best one. The brand is known for selling high quality streetwear staples—plaids, abraded denims, oversized hoodies—to a luxury clientele, but its appeal can be difficult to define in exact terms. “I’m not conceptual or art driven,” Lorenzo told the German fashion editor Joerg Koch, “I’m solution oriented”.

• CRAIG GREEN

  Romance & Optimisim

  It’s a rare moment when fashion editors are moved to tears at a fashion show. Of course, there are stories of audiences weeping at the hands of Helmut Lang and Martin Margiela, but that was over two decades ago, way before the industry reached the apex of corporate capacity and widespread cynicism ensued.

• LES ENFANTS TERRIBLES

  Some rules are meant to be broken

  From Vetements to Valentino, Balmain to Balenciaga, Thom Browne to Tom Ford, the game has changed. Gone are the borders and boundaries, the can’t do’s and must not’s. This is a game of personal expression and fashion freedom, and it’s time to choose your team.

• FRANCIS KURKDJIAN

  The memories of scent

  Francis Kurkdjian is a formidable French born perfumer who, aside from running his own highly successful fragrance empire, finds the time to continuously create superior scents for houses such as Burberry, Nina Ricci and Kenzo.

• 30 YEARS OF MENSWEAR

  An interview with Ross Poulakis

  Ross Poulakis, general manager of Harrolds Australia’s Luxury Department Store, is standing in the middle of their vast and immaculate menswear store in Sydney, hurriedly selecting a tie to better match his double-breasted Harrolds Private Label suit as he prepares for the camera. As the 29-year-old son of Harrolds founder, John Poulakis, Ross has grown up in the business, watching as his father turned a single Melbourne menswear store, established in 1985, into a dynamic retail empire.

FASHION

• THIERRY-MAXIME LORIOT

  The storyteller

  When I interviewed Thierry-Maxime Loriot in 2014 on his transition into fashion curating, he called himself a storyteller. Two years later when speaking about his work curating the Viktor&Rolf: Fashion Artists exhibition at the National Gallery of Victoria, he similarly stated “You can put something on the wall, but it’s better if you tell a story. It’s like going to a movie, visitors want to experience something.”

• RICK OWENS

  This brutal world

  The exterior of Rick Owens’ Venetian apartment looks, at first glance, decidedly un-Rick Owens. Perched on the beachfront of Lido, in a quiet area south of the main tourist hub, the pistachio façade of the building gives nothing away. There is no bell, just suspicious neighbours.

• COUP DE MAÎTRE

  Where classic meets creative

  One of the great virtues of art is that it enables us to see the world differently while affording us the freedom to explore the intersections of our senses. Neue Fashion uncovers a world where classic meets creative.

• TIM BLANKS

  The voice of experience

  On the face of it, Tim Blanks, the renowned fashion critic, doesn’t fit the preconceived idea of a fashion journalist. Famous for his year round uniform of short sleeved floral shirts, he has been producing whip smart reviews for more than three decades that concentrate on the runway soundtrack and the current political climate as much as they do the clothes.

• LVMH PRIZE

  The new and the next

  It is a well known truth that fashion can be a notoriously difficult, competitive and enervating industry, especially for an enthusiastic young designer starting out with limited funds and scant business knowledge. There is mounting pressure to design and produce numerous collections with a unique signature that pleases both press and buyer.

• ANDREW BOLTON

  Conserving cultural artefacts

  Today, the reinvigorated and much celebrated Costume Institute is led by British born curator Andrew Bolton. He has been responsible for megawatt shows including 2011’s Alexander McQueen: Savage Beauty, and last year’s China: Through the Looking Glass, which most notably broke all attendance records for the department.

• ANTHONY VACCARELLO

  A handful of lust

  Vaccarello’s silhouette is centred on desire itself in its most visceral, liquid form—the silky dresses with incendiary splits that travel imprudently northwards, far beyond the hip bone and into the sphere of brazen exhibitionism—the kind that would once have resulted in rampant persecution.

• NOKI

  The doctor will see you now

  “Cult is a word you would never say in Hollywood,” John Waters once said. “Cult means that [the film] lost money and three smart people liked it.” Though many would refuse to admit it, cult status is the absolute zenith of creative ambition. For truly provocative artists and designers, even the most glittering of institutional success will never compare to the eternal glory of becoming a cult symbol.

• VIKTOR&ROLF

  Fashion Artists

  I’m posing questions to Dutch fashion designers Viktor Horsting and Rolf Snoeren that are a little more searching than most. Instead of asking about their hit fragrance, Flowerbomb (one bottle sold every three minutes), or their private relationship (former partners, now platonic—for the record), I’m plundering sociology, anthropology, in fact, any-ology I can muster.

• Art and Fashion

  Enriching luminaries

  Contemporaneously art and fashion are economic and cultural bedfellows, but it wasn’t always so. Historically art and fashion found themselves philosophically opposed. Within each discipline there traditionally existed a hierarchy of value. Fashion was understood to be fickle, transient and in constant flux, and art was considered intellectual, even elitist.

• GEZA SCHOEN

  Iso E Super

  Berlin based perfumer and renowned nose Geza Schoen redefined the industry in 2006 with the introduction of Escentric Molecules 01, the beginning of a range of astonishing molecular scents that pushed the traditional boundaries of fragrance.

FASHION

• NICOLA FORMICHETTI

  From the faculty of misfits

  Nicola Formichetti never met Andy Warhol—their lifespans overlapped by ten years—but refers to the American artist as his “dream teacher”. Their post-mortem union transpired when Formichetti launched the Welcome to Diesel World exhibition in Melbourne in March of 2016, where Warhol’s high-gloss albeit chilled paintings of cultural icons were hanging in a major gallery. The pair’s parallels are simple: children of working class parents whose imaginations fought to keep up with the prodigious rate of artistic output.

• A FASHIONABLE LIFE

  In conversation with Daphne Guinness

  Isabella Blow was one of the fashion world’s great connoisseurs and bohemians, a British aristocrat, stylist, muse and mentor of young, seminal designers such as Alexander McQueen, Hussein Chalayan and milliner Philip Treacy, and models such as Stella Tennant, Honor Fraser and Sophie Dahl.

• A GRAND COURT

  Where the old meets the new

  Long considered by many as an exotic antipodean outpost, our collective identity has always been shaped by a constant tension between the ancient, the old world and the new. With a nod to the past and a warm embrace of the future, Neue Fashion takes a grand tour through the sculptural forms, soft lines and strong silhouettes of our European and Australian masters.

• ARMAND HADIDA

  Forever scouting

  “Fashion should always be about discovery and creating an identity. The idea isn’t just adding to the visual overload of clothing out there,” says Hadida, who is still as passionate and visionary about fashion as he was when he first opened the doors of L’Eclaireur in a Parisian basement in 1980.

• THOM BROWNE

  Properness and perversion

  In 2003, American essayist Judith Thurman, while covering the men’s collections in Milan and Paris for The New Yorker, wrote, “The flash of an ankle used to represent the chasm between a sophisticate and a rube.” Had she turned toward her countryman Thom Browne, who introduced his ready-to-wear collection that same year, she might have noticed a seismic shift in culturally sanctioned displays of masculine (that is to say, American) vanity.

• JORDAN ASKILL

  Of Objects and Fables

  Punks, patricians, and anybody else straining toward their chic all adorn themselves for the same reason: an audacious display of making-do with the one body they have been assigned and confined in. Jordan Askill is part of an ascendant school of new jewellery designers whose small glories—sugar spun heart rings, for example—and swirling friezes of horses, birds and panthers have stymied our idea of what art can do, and what it can do without.

• MICHÈLE LAMY

  A mesmerising Sphinx

  Michèle Lamy walks forward to greet me in the foyer of her Parisian townhouse like a tiny woodland creature: inquisitive, glistening, mesmeric—as though she has just burrowed her way through a mound of wet peat and emerged into the sunshine. In that inimitable French way, we embrace like old friends. She studies me carefully, first directly in the eye, and then all over, as if searching for my soul.

• SIMPLICITY AND DECADENCE

  Neue Selects

  Conceived upon a nexus of art and science, perfumus, or ‘to smoke through’ in the Latin tongue, may be the only earthly counterpart to ambrosia. Neue Fashion explores seven of the world’s most unique olfactory creations that stimulate our imagination and highlight the dualities between heritage and modernity, simplicity and decadence.

• ALEXANDER WANG

  The American dream

  For more than just one generation, Alexander Wang is the messiah of a casual-luxe, sports-infused lifestyle that echoes the lowbrow culture of the 1990s and fuses it with an insouciant sense of modelesque refinement. Those ankle boots and leather miniskirts? That’s Wang territory. Those insanely studded grained-leather holdalls and bucket bags? Wang.

• TOM FORD

  A future legacy

  In taking on the forces of fast fashion and by ironically delivering at a faster rate, Ford will no doubt emerge an even bigger luxury force to be reckoned with—with each new collection made more exclusive by virtue of its limited edition. Executed with Ford’s trademark finesse and vision, the recalibration will indeed put the designer at the lead of fashion’s new renaissance.

• STELLA MCCARTNEY

  The principle of change

  All hail Stella McCartney, the designer who has made ethical business a cornerstone of her label by practicing sustainable production methods, all the while reinforcing her unique creative vision. Her successes so transparent that she is merely known by the moniker Stella, shedding any demand for a surname.

FASHION

• THIERRY-MAXIME LORIOT

  The fashion world of Thierry-Maxime Loriot

  Over the past year I’ve worked with Thierry-Maxime Loriot to bring The Fashion World of Jean Paul Gaultier: From the Sidewalk to the Catwalk to its Melbourne venue at the National Gallery of Victoria (NGV). This is the fashion world of Thierry-Maxime Loriot.

• AMOUAGE

  Bottling art and emotion

  Some of the greatest things happen by chance. Far from being on the radar, it is the unforeseen events or unexpected meetings that can change the course of one’s life. For Christopher Chong, creative director of international luxury fragrance brand Amouage, meeting David Crickmore, chief executive officer of the coveted perfume company, in 2007, was just one of the many chances that have occurred in his illustrious career spanning art, fashion and opera.

• Stephen Jones

  Thinking seasons ahead

  Pinning down a time to speak with Stephen Jones isn’t easy. As soon as he returns from Fashion Week in Paris, he sets off for Japan, literally with no time in between. But when you start to compile a list of the world’s leading fashion designers he collaborates with, patience is obviously required.

• MR ANDREA ARTIOLI

  The new renaissance

  In the current landscape of luxury fashion Artioli is something of an outlier. It remains a thriving family run business by continuing to do what it has always done: make hand-crafted shoes for men with passion and gusto.

• NICOLAS OUCHENIR

  The power of the fountain pen

  Amongst the barrage of communications we are likely to receive daily, there lies a moment of stillness and reflection in the form of a handwritten letter by Nicolas Ouchenir. It is Ouchenir’s handmade and carefully crafted calligraphy that has enamoured designers, architects, and creative iconoclasts around the world.

FASHION

• DRIES VAN NOTEN

  Breaking rank from the fashion status quo

  In the early 1980s, The Antwerp Six caused an avalanche on London’s fashion scene, not dissimilar to the Japanese designers showing in Paris at the same time. Amongst the group were Ann Demeulemeester, Walter Van Beirendonck and Dries Van Noten.

• SONG FOR THE MUTE

  Layered complexity

  It’s clear the goal for Melvin Tanaya and Lyna Ty—the founders of Song for the Mute—is to create clothing that encapsulates their dedication and passion for craft and tell a personal story curated over many years.

• MaterialbyProduct

  A luxury goods house for the 21st century

  Susan Dimasi established luxury fashion house Materialbyproduct (MBP) in 2004 as a means to invent future systems for fashion design. These systems are shaped by the Australian context, as well as the fashion industry’s needs for smaller production runs within less physical space.

• FLIGHT AND FASHION

  Amelia Earhart

  Even today portraits of the aviatrix convey a powerful sense of allure and exhilaration. Throwing caution to the wind with their daring adventures, the exploits of the aviatrix captivated the world and the zeitgeist of an era of progress when women began to radically challenge conventional gender roles.

• NICK WOOSTER

  Style icon, entrepreneur, free agent

  Nick Wooster, menswear style icon, entrepreneur and self-confessed brand, was in Melbourne, Australia, recently in his role as strategic consultant for Woolmark, witnessing the transformation of natural fibres into wool.

• LUI HON

  Clothes to collect

  Like his beautifully crafted clothes, fashion designer Lui Hon chooses his words carefully. There are no large arm gestures, as are often seen in this industry, only thoughtful responses to each question.

• ORLEBAR BROWN

  An interview with Adam Brown

  Adam Brown, Founder of Orlebar Brown, is taking a more considered approach to mens swimwear. His insights into quality and the exchange of knowledge is encouraging consumers to reconsider their perspective.

• COUP DE MAÎTRE

  Where classic meets creative

  One of the great virtues of art is that it enables us to see the world differently while affording us the freedom to explore the intersections of our senses. Neue Fashion uncovers a world where classic meets creative.

• Stop the fashion system

  Less is more

  No other creative industry works at the speed of fashion, producing new product on a constant basis at ridiculously low prices, encouraging a disposable culture. Fashion has shifted from a historical formulaic process of two significant collections a year, to multiple delivery drops on a fast track turn around where similar styles are released across the globe simultaneously. 

• DEFINING A LUXURY RETAIL EXPERIENCE

  Neue Perspective

  In recent times much has been written about the strategic opportunity that Australia’s geographic location and proximity to Asia has offered purveyors of luxury products and services. Long considered by Europe as an exotic antipodean outpost, Australia has always sought to embrace its European heritage while advocating the virtues of American style commercialisation.

• MADE TO MEASURE

  Neue Perspective

  Deliberate, considered and incremental, Harrolds Made to Measure is as much an antidote to fast fashion as it is the complete antithesis. Through its flagship and personalised tailored experience, Made to Measure clients are immersed in a curated world of craftsmanship and tailoring.

• TOM OF FINLAND

  Light and shade

  There are generations of people for whom Tom represents an indelible part of their upbringing. Artists, photographers, performers—the unapologetically horny—have all fallen under his spell in some shape or form. Whether by default or design, Tom’s men, or what they represent, have united taste and sexuality in the most fluid way imaginable.

• CONTEMPORARY CLASSICISM

  Classical art, contemporary context

  Featuring a dynamic selection of artworks by Barry X Ball, Damien Hirst, Robert Mapplethorpe, and Claudio Parmiggiani, this group exhibition reveals how each of these artists integrate themes and imagery from Classical art into a contemporary context. Through varied references to antique sculpture, these four masters address issues pertinent to today’s cultural and political discussions.

• JOHAN VAN MULLEM

  Mirrors to the other side

  Van Mullem’s monumental portraits are fluid, transitory, evocative things. Rendered in generously applied oil-based ink on unprimed board, they retain a quality of wetness, an uncanny sense that their surfaces are in fact still shifting.

ART

• ALBERTO BURRI

  Materials of reconstruction

  Known for ‘painting without paint’, Burri would tear, stitch, burn and batter his creations into submission. In the words of the Italian critic, Emilio Vila, Burri’s works were “nourished by matter that conserves only a tragic reminiscence of painting, almost as if it were asphyxiated; a material that is devitalised, impoverished, rotted, consumed and already wasted away”.

• BEN QUILTY

  The Last Supper

  Gus Speth, an American environmental lawyer and advocate said “I used to think the top global environmental problems were biodiversity loss, ecosystem collapse and climate change. I thought with thirty years of good science we could address those problems, but I was wrong. The top environmental problems are selfishness, greed and apathy—and to deal with these we need a spiritual and cultural transformation and we scientists don’t know how to do that.”

• MARILYN MINTER

  Pretty/Dirty

  Marilyn Minter received her first retrospective, Marilyn Minter: Pretty/Dirty, at the Brooklyn Museum earlier this year. It surveyed a career that arcs, with unflinching momentum, from the late 1960s to the present day, and cast the American artist into the spotlight and under the favourable gaze of a new generation of feminists. 

• WIM DELVOYE

  Twisted desire

  The sculptural works of Belgian artist Wim Delvoye are strewn with winding helixes, spiralling ladders, windmills, wheels and coiled digestive tracts, whose movements lead us around, back to the beginnings. These elusive, twisting motifs evoke an ambivalence with regards to notions of progress—rather than advancing forwards, we encounter things in states of contorted escape and evasion, turning away and unweaving themselves.

• SERIAL/PORTABLE CLASSIC

  Fondazione Prada

  The great German poet, Goethe, who was a passionate admirer of Greek art, wrote “nothing gripped my whole being so much as the Laocoön group … I was in ecstasies over it.”1 He penned this on viewing a plaster cast of the original in Mannheim in Germany.

• TATSUO MIYAJIMA

  Without zero

  Tatsuo Miyajima is a veteran of the international exhibition circuit whose work has twice been included in the Venice Biennale (1988 and 1999). The artist believes that every human life is unique and important. To this end and over the last three decades, Miyajima has become known for his large-scale, immersive installations, which use LED-lit numbers, counting from one through to nine, backwards and forwards at different speeds, while never hitting zero.

• KLIMT & FLÖGE

  Between beauty and the abyss

  Both artist and designer imbued their work with the same love of nature, eclectic influences (from classical art to folk traditions and ethnography), and self-expression: Klimt, in his highly decorated Art Nouveau canvasses that swirled with symbolism and sexual desires; Flöge in her free flowing and bold reform dresses that liberated fin-de-siècle Viennese women from tight-laced fashions.

• TONY GARIFALAKIS

  Mob Rule

  His use of spray paint, with its associations of graffiti and vandalism, formed a rebellious and anarchic foil to the neat and straight lines preferred by government officials. And where the FBI’s redactions targeted information too sensitive to be released, Garifalakis took aim at the most public of all information: the faces of models and celebrities.

• EXPÉRIENCE POMMERY

  An extraordinary commitment to art and innovation

  Thirty metres below ground, carved out of chalk and limestone, is one of the biggest and most unusual private art galleries in Europe. Here, amid 18 kilometres of interconnected rib and barrel vault galleries, art is served at around 10 degrees—the same temperature as the 30 million bottles of champagne that surround it.

• CATACOMB SAINTS

  Material miracles

  Saint Auxelius’s head rests delicately upon an embroidered pillow, his face veiled in diaphanous muslin, one hand poised contemplatively against his cheek. His costume of elaborate gold filigree is decorated with precious jewels: rubies, sapphires, diamonds and pearls anoint his reclining form, from the pinnacle of his headdress to the tips of his slippered feet.

• YANNIMA PIKARLI TOMMY WATSON

  The unstoppable octogenarian

  Watson sits cross-legged on a half-finished painting laid out on the floor. The unstoppable octogenarian speaks very little English but smiles, extends his firm hand and continues to dot the canvas. I watch the master colourist work for another hour. He completes a section of canvas almost as big as himself; he looks up occasionally, grinds his teeth and says something in a language I don’t understand. I smile knowing he is happy for me to sit, watch and discreetly take photographs.

• LOUISE BOURGEOIS

  The repairer

  “Sculpture is an exorcism,” Louise Bourgeois once told an interviewer. “When you are really depressed and have no other way out except suicide, sculpture will get you out of it.” It’s the voice of a lifelong extremist: Give me art or give me death.

• MICHAEL ZAVROS

  Hyperreal beauty

  In the same year as Michael Zavros was born, 1974, the great Italian writer and philosopher, Umberto Eco, was exploring the realm of ‘hyperreality’ in America. This exploration was published the following year in a landmark essay, Travels in Hyperreality.

• GREG SEMU

  Raft of the Tagata Pasifika (People of the Pacific)

  In a world premiere, renowned Samoan-born contemporary artist, Greg Semu, will unveil a solo exhibition at the National Gallery of Victoria featuring a series of powerful photographic works, The Raft of the Tagata Pasifika (People of the Pacific). Working with a cast of twenty-two indigenous actors from the Cook Islands, Semu restages two iconic European history paintings.

• JOHN WOLSELEY

  Heartlands and Headwaters

  The story of the pelican operates as an evocative microcosm of John Wolseley’s career: in the winter of 2014, the artist was camped in a swampy area just south of Mataranka the Northern Territory, Australia nearing the conclusion of six weeks spent creatively immersed in the wilderness.

• RAQS MEDIA COLLECTIVE

  Epiphany and escape

  Time makes a mockery of objects. It gnaws away at them, strips them bare, loses them. Objects are cracked, faded, dissolved, forgotten, deformed, renamed, undone—all in time. When artists set out to make objects that visualise time itself, they risk turning time into space and thereby losing its temporal essence, its movements and contingencies.

• GEOFFREY LILLEMON

  Turn on, tune in, drop art

  It’s a fine winter’s day in central Amsterdam, a city so preternaturally handsome it should come with its own mirror and grooming kit. Tall merchants houses standing proud in the sunshine, bathed in a flattering light, huddle together on the banks of its famous canals and all seems well in this picture-perfect world.

• Andrew Hazewinkel

  The (re)order of things: the art of Andrew Hazewinkel

  Borrowing from museological, archival and archaeological practices and fields as diverse as geology, anthropology and surrealism, Andrew Hazewinkel's largely photographic and object-based works are striking for their strange arrangements of repurposed materials that unearth unexpected associations.

• MURMUR (MÛR’MER)

  An installation by Rosslynd Piggott

  A murmur is by definition an elusive thing, existing in the periphery. Like a shadow or an imprint, the more one attempts to grasp it, the more ephemeral it becomes, its force residing in the realm of suggestion or evocation rather than that of the literal or figurative.

• Julia deVille

  Julia deVille and the luxury of imagination

  The sculptures and jewellery of Julia deVille are both luxurious and forbidding. No baroque extravagance is alien to her repertoire: silver chargers with cartouches on their architectural flanges, urns with volutes and florid articulation, copious ornaments from the age of authority.

• AZUMA MAKOTO

  In Bloom

  Azuma Makoto is a renegade in the art of floral sculptures. In his haute couture Tokyo-based floral shop, JARDINS des FLEURS, Azuma creates abstract forms and grand floral structures. His work has attracted coveted brands and individuals devoted to his artisanal skills.

• ADELINE OOI

  Curator, director and polyglot

  Say you were hiring the new Director Asia at Art Basel, the organisation that produces the biggest yearly arts event, in the world’s most populous continent. Who would you headhunt? On paper, the person who got the job seems to tick every possible box.

• MPAVILION

  Pergodas, Pavilions and Contemporary Design

  The MPavilion aims to fit this bill. Heralded as “a unique architecture commission and design event for Melbourne,” MPavilion has been conceived as a “meeting place for creative collaboration and community engagement—a new type of clubhouse—to enhance the lives of all Victorians”—and, for that matter, the many visitors to Melbourne from interstate and overseas.

• KENNY SCHACHTER

  The wild world of art

  Kenny Schachter has marked the art world with his own refreshing discourse and vision as an art dealer, curator and writer. Influenced by the view that art should not pander to an exclusive form of dialogue or be held hostage by the select few.

• FOLIE À PLUSIEURS

  A sense of memory

  What does perfume say to you? If it’s a means to an end, a well packaged accessory or merely a mask to cover your true identity, then look away now. There is scent, and there is sense. A smell can be evocative but does it stop you in your tracks? Can it relay some intangible signal that will move you in the same way music makes you dance, or a painting inspires awe? Niche perfumery Folie À Plusieurs steadfastly believe so, adhering to a unique brief of using fragrance for the purpose of emotional, artistic and cultural expansion.

• ACCELERATION STRUCTURES

  Rolls-Royce commissions artist Dan Holdsworth

  The Rolls-Royce Art Program commissioned artist and visionary photographer Dan Holdsworth to create Acceleration Structures. Acceleration Structures explores Europe’s most sublime but inhospitable landscapes in radically new ways through advanced technology, underpinned by scientific research and personal endeavour.

• ESCHER X NENDO |
  BETWEEN TWO WORLDS

  2 December 2018 — 7 April 2019

  Escher X nendo | Between Two Worlds is the first exhibition in the world to feature the extraordinary work of Dutch graphic artist M. C. Escher in dialogue with the work of acclaimed Japanese design studio nendo, led by designer Oki Sato. Escher X nendo | Between Two Worlds will be on display from 2 December 2018 – 7 April 2019 at NGV International in Melbourne.

• CHARLOTTE PRODGER

  Turner Prize winner 2018

  Artist Charlotte Prodger has won the 2018 Turner Prize for an autobiographical film shot on a mobile phone. The 44-year-old, who will represent Scotland at the Venice Biennale next year, will join the ranks of past Turner Prize winners which include Damien Hirst, Anish Kapoor and Antony Gormley.

• MPAVILION

  OMA's design vision for 2017

  The 2017 pavilion has been designed by Rem Koolhaas & David Gianotten of Netherlands-based architects OMA. “MPavilion is a project that hopes to provoke discussion around what architecture can do both globally and in an Australian context,” state the architects. “We’re interested in treating this pavilion not just as an architectural object, but as something that injects intensity into a city and contributes to an ever-evolving culture.”

• SANCAKLAR MOSQUE

  Embedding cultural memory in contemporary architecture

  When the head of the philanthropic Sancaklar Foundation, Suat Sancak, first approached Emre Arolat with a request to design a new mosque for 500 worshippers, the architect turned him down. “I told him I’m not that kind of architect,” he remembers.

• PETER MARINO

  The dream weaver

  Marino—let’s call a spade a spade and anoint him with the mantle of ‘starchitect’—is a man obsessed with style. For almost fifty years this striking character has applied architectural nous to a dazzling array of commissions, including private homes for the superannuated, grand, conceptual interiors, and all manner of radical side projects.

• THE BRION TOMB

  A garden for the dead

  We will never know precisely how the architect managed to persuade Onorina to mitigate the scale of the memorial and reserve most of the site as open space. Despite being one of most influential architects of his day, Scarpa spoke little of his work and left few records to posterity. In any case, rather than occupy the space with an imposing monument, Scarpa designed the memorial as a tranquil landscape and a place of collective contemplation.

• Musée Yves Saint Laurent

  Artisanat

  When 30-year-old Yves Saint Laurent ventured to Marrakesh for the first time in 1966, he became so infatuated with the ‘red city’ that he often returned with his long term companion and business partner, Pierre Bergé, eventually buying a home that once belonged to painter Jacques Majorelle.

• Hotel Otherworldly

  The luxurious and the site specific

  One does not often use the terms ‘guerilla’ and ‘anarchy’ to describe a luxury hotel experience. In much the same way you don’t typically imagine architects moving in secret, planning and scheming the reconfiguration of luxury hotel suites under the thin veil of a ‘do not disturb’ sign. But, Australian based architect Matthew Bird has never really viewed the world of luxury through a conventional lens.

• Autoerotic

  1111 Lincoln Road, Miami

  Rarely has a building inspired so many people to wax poetically: a “noble space”, “generator of a new architectural experience in city” and a “work of art”. And all this to describe a carpark.

• JOHN WARDLE

  Collecting. Obsession. Architecture.

  On Tasmania’s Bruny Island, where the architect built his award-winning house known as the Shearers Quarters (it really is a shearers quarters!), Wardle has a 1940s apple shed filled with objects of his affection: chairs, antique agricultural machinery, old apple packaging technology. Nearby, a more contemporary steel shed accommodates further acquisitions.

• LONNEY WHITE

  Dark materials

  It was during his high school years in Montana that Lonney White became “confused by the trendiness of colour” and shunned the palette entirely from his sartorial identity. He was instead solaced by the timeless allure of monochrome, with the stylistic code since creeping into his aesthetic as a neo-minimalist painter, sculptor and furniture designer.

• FRÉDÉRIC MALLE

  Editions de Parfums

  Memories are so often olfactory. Although every scent is made of a simple combination of carbon, nitrogen, hydrogen, oxygen and sulfur, the experience of scent is both subjective and personal. Selecting a fragrance for another is often one of life’s most intimate and difficult acts.

• HIROSHI ISHIGURO

  The ghost in the machine

  It’s 7pm in Osaka, Japan, and Professor Hiroshi Ishiguro looks in need of a nightcap. Hyperactive to the point of distraction, he zips around his apartment seemingly wired on life. One minute, the esteemed roboticist is pacing the living room floor in search of wisdom. The next, he is nervously pulling a blind up and down, peering out of a window into a void of pitch-black infinity. The man can’t settle.

• LUKAS MACHNIK

  A curator's art

  Lukas Machnik is far more than the sum of his parts. In myriad ventures— interior design, furniture, objects, art—the Chicago-based Pole imbues his work with the eye of an auteur. Avant-garde, haunting, graphic, bold—these are hardly commercial adjectives, and yet this is how you might describe the Machnik aesthetic, the ability to cross-reference and stamp personality onto a project with a profound disregard for convention.

• MONIKA BIELSKYTE

  Pathologically curious

  Encounters with chthonian spirits—who leave their subterranean dwellings only when the beasts wake them—are rare. Talking to Monika Bielskyte, the Lithuanian-born creative director, consultant, strategist and self-proclaimed “techno nomad”, is like conversing with a good friend you might have only known from a prior life. You feel in good hands with her.

• CAPITANO SPAVENTO

  The Couture Edition

  Prestigious porcelain company Porzellan Manufaktur Nymphenburg looked to fashion to reprise the original avant garde status of their signature Commedia dell’Arte figurines. The Couture Edition was a gesture of rebellion in keeping with the company’s original integral focus on commissioning leading artists of the day.

• ACHILLE SALVAGNI

  Neue Collectors

  The interior artefacts and objects created by Achille Salvagni are deeply moving and considered objects d’art. Poised, eloquent and unquestionably luxurious, each piece is underpinned by unwavering commitment to detail, ideas and the use of the finest materials and craftsmanship. These are not just interior decorations but timeless pieces infused with history, context and the imagination.

• FOLIE À PLUSIEURS

  Perfumes with a methodical madness

  There are few sensations that speak to our collective consciousness the way perfume does—its fragile, ephemeral nuances conjuring both fantasy and memory in our minds and bodies, with layered possibilities shifting between the wearer and those who share their personal space.

• Australian High Commission

  Design history in the making

  One of Australian design’s most ambitious ventures, Broached Commissions is unusual in curating and commissioning its own designs. Using a core group of designers—Trent Jansen, Adam Goodrum and Charles Wilson—Lou Weis’s Melbourne-based venture is an exercise in design history. It explores how ideas arrived and evolved in Australia.

GASTRONOMY

• MASSIMO BOTTURA

  Osteria Francescana

  Within the fabric of our memory, taste is a thread laden with emotions. As we age, pulling at the thread can help us better understand the past whilst simultaneously evoking the most powerful feelings. Great chefs master the alchemy of these emotions with an incredible artistic dexterity, perhaps none more so than Massimo Bottura.

• ANDONI LUIS ADURIZ

  Counterintuitive gastronomy

  A few miles outside the Basque city of San Sebastián, past roadside bars and verdant fields, lies Mugaritz; a restaurant so revered that people here talk about it in a kind of hushed awe. From the outside it appears fairly unremarkable; a large chalet-like building topped with a sloping roof and flanked by gardens that produce the delicate flowers, vegetables and herbs that contribute to its menu.

• Vue de Monde

  The liberation of memories

  Over the past decade Australia’s dining landscape has changed beyond the imaginable. Composed as a perfect gastronomic double helix of sorts with adventurous, educated and demanding consumers forming one structure while intelligent, entrepreneurial and inventive chefs provide a dynamic counterpoint.

• ANNE-SOPHIE PIC

  The poetry of flavours

  On Avenue Victor Hugo in the quaint town of Valence, tucked between Lyon and the Provence, perched on the banks of the Rhône and its golden vineyards, the venerable Maison Pic is known only by fine gastronomes and connoisseurs. Some journey from afar to savour the delicate, robust cuisine of chef Anne- Sophie Pic, widely known as one of the greatest chefs in the world.

• VIRGILIO MARTÍNEZ

  Good altitude

  Virgilio Martínez may be a long way from home but food is providing familiar comfort. The 40-year-old Peruvian super-chef is in Europe on a profile-raising trip of sorts, and the spoils of his craft are never far away.

AUTOMOTIVE

• ROLLS-ROYCE VISION NEXT 100

  A grand vision for the future of luxury mobility

  In a spectacular event at London’s Roundhouse, the Rolls-Royce VISION NEXT 100 was presented today. Codenamed 103EX, it is the marque’s first ever pure ‘Vision Vehicle,’ defining the future of luxury mobility. The Rolls-Royce VISION NEXT 100 presents an intriguing and aesthetically dynamic vision of the future of luxury mobility—a completely personal, effortless and autonomous Rolls-Royce experience, wrapped in a design that ensures a ‘Grand Sanctuary’ for its occupants.

• BLACK BADGE

  The dark side of Rolls-Royce

  In response to a diversifying and increasingly demanding client base, Rolls-Royce have created Black Badge: A new Rolls-Royce that defies convention with customised details, dark features and the finest of Rolls-Royce technology and advancements.

• ASTON MARTIN DB11 V8 COUPE

  Sensuous machinery with soul

  Can a mere machine have soul? Can an inanimate, man-made object such as a car be described as sensuous? Before you answer those questions, picture what the constituent raw materials of a car would look like piled up on the ground in front of you: large sheets of shiny metal, some rubber, glass, plastic, lots of wire and a few cow hides. Now feast your eyes on what a car manufacturer such as Aston Martin can create with these materials to work from, the inarguably gorgeous DB11 V8 Coupe.

• FANGIO

  The Maestro of racing

  The well dressed, elderly man sitting opposite was none other than J.M. Fangio, a quietly spoken gent who not only survived the most dangerous era of racing but debuted at an age when many were retiring and then went on to win five world championships. For more than half a century after his retirement, Fangio maintained the greatest winning percentage in Formula One history.

• PEDRAZZINI

  Exquisite mahogany runabouts

  We glide to a silent stop outside an innocuous looking workshop on the banks of Lake Zürich in Switzerland. Our driver opens the elegant, rear-hinged back door of the Rolls-Royce Phantom and we step out and take a moment to acknowledge our picturesque lakeside surrounds. A gate to the building swings wide and our senses are assaulted with the unmistakable smells of high-end boat-building, a mix of expensive wood shavings, epoxy and varnish. But, like the maker of the car we've borrowed for the day, this is no ordinary manufacturer. We're at the headquarters of Pedrazzini.

• ASTON MARTIN

  The new Vantage and DB11 Volante

  Aston Martin launched the much anticipated Vantage and the DB11 Volante to the Australian market ahead of the Formula 1® 2018 Rolex Australian Grand Prix. The luxury English marque are proud to release the two extraordinary models into the Australian market after experiencing strong sales in 2017. Marek Reichman, Aston Martin’s Vice President and Chief Creative Officer, alongside Simon Sproule, the Vice President and Chief Marketing Officer, and Patrik Nilsson, President of Aston Martin in Asia Pacific, were all in Melbourne to celebrate the releases.

• ASTON MARTIN

  The Vantage AMR Pro

  There have been many iterations of Aston Martin's venerable Vantage sports car, but none quite like this. The Vantage AMR Pro is the first of a new generation of models designed and developed in response to insatiable demand from the wealthiest of Aston Martin's clients. They are willing to pay for exclusivity, yet also very much want a purebred Aston Martin.

• ROLLS-ROYCE DAWN

  Inspired by fashion

  On Wednesday 24 May 2017, Rolls-Royce Motor Cars launched its largest Motor Cars showroom in the Asia Pacific region (outside of mainland China) in Melbourne, Australia. To celebrate the occasion, the avant-garde ‘Dawn—Inspired by Fashion’ super-luxury Drophead Coupé was unveiled.

• ROLLS-ROYCE CULLINAN

  Discover the first Rolls-Royce SUV

  Heralding a new era for the marque, the Rolls-Royce Cullinan is the first SUV in the Rolls-Royce bloodline, responding to the demands and desires of a growing luxury clientele. “Our answer to the visionaries, adventurers, explorers and those who believe in the supremacy of liberty is the Rolls-Royce Cullinan.” Comments Torsten Müller-Ötvös, Chief Executive Officer of Rolls-Royce Motor Cars.

• MCLAREN

  An interview with Robert Melville

  Robert Melville admits to obsessively drawing cars when he was a boy. He still does, though today it’s as design director at McLaren Automotive. Melville embodies the mindset and drive that has defined McLaren since Bruce McLaren set up his Formula One team in 1963.

• FLAVIO MANZONI

  Intuition and serendipity

  Flavio Manzoni imbues every conversation with candour and passion, his sentences scattered with literary quotes and references to works of art and architecture. According to the self-taught designer, great automotive design is achieved by cross-fertilising disparate disciplines and appreciating intuition and serendipity throughout the process.

• MASERATI A6G

  A grand tour

  Amid the white noise of reality TV and the whining clamour of the wannabe celebrity, it’s startling to find someone with actual accomplishments who prefers to remain anonymous. This is not a new phenomenon, of course. In fact, it was once admired and aspired to. It was called ‘cool’.

• ROLLS-ROYCE EXHIBITION

  The Great Eight Phantoms

  Since its debut in 1925, a Rolls-Royce Phantom has stood as witness to history’s most defining moments, from treaty signings to occasions of state and events that have defined the world we live in today. To celebrate its 92 years as one of the most celebrated luxury items, Rolls-Royce is holding an exhibition, The Great Eight Phantoms, to be held at the end of July in Mayfair, London.

• A BLACK SWAN MOMENT

  Introduing the McLaren 570S

  Four thousand cars, a tiny number in automotive terms, is McLaren Automotive’s goal. Established in 2010, the marque is evidently still in its infancy. The F1—the fastest naturally aspirated production car to ever be built and one that still remains a global automotive supercar icon since its inception in 1992—remains a persuasive element at the heart of McLaren’s brand identity.

• COLLIER SCHORR

  Distilling youth

  When a designer friend of mine first came across the words Collier Schorr, she took them not as a name but as a kind of Lorem Ipsum; shapely letters to use as placeholder text as she drafted her layouts. The syllables are mutable—both soft and hard, and ambiguous. To those unfamiliar with the American artist and fashion photographer Collier Schorr, the name does not conjure up any particular imagery. Much like the artist, both are open to interpretation.

• INEZ & VINOODH

  Dutch courage

  Inez van Lamsweerde and Vinoodh Matadin are two names that are quite a mouthful. Between them, the Dutch photographers boast ten tongue-twisting syllables. Like the photographs they produce; fashion images, portraits, advertising campaigns, their names have become synonymous with a space between normal and strange, light and dark, self explanatory and the mysteriously glamorous.

• DAVID SIMS

  When grunge grows up

  The fashion photographer David Sims once claimed he had no patience for nostalgia, and that living in the past was a pure waste of time. He is not a household name, but few in the fashion world would deny that Sims is a colossus of the industry—the photographer’s photographer—and that his adroit eye has ultimately shaped a new way of looking at beauty. 

• CIAO MANHATTAN

  An interview with Bon Duke

  A graduate of the city’s School of Visual Arts, Bon Duke is fast emerging as a powerful force in fashion editorial. Shooting for a host of style magazines, he has an eye for detail, and is part of a new generation of film and image-makers influencing the fashion landscape with fresh perspectives.

• TIM RICHARDSON

  Spiritual Animal

  Image making in the 21st century is a nuanced and revolutionary art, aspired to by many as a retreat from the mundane, and an opportunity to see the world from an enigmatic new perspective. With current trends in fashion photography leaning heavily on a nostalgia for analogue, there are a mere handful of photographers who are genuinely pushing the boundaries of their craft and Tim Richardson may be counted amongst them.

• MAPPLETHORPE

  Creating a future legacy

  When Robert Mapplethorpe died in Boston on the morning of 9 March 1989, he was 42. He had already attained a degree of notoriety in art circles and questions had been raised about the pornographic content in his art. His images contained explicit nudity, graphic records of homosexual acts and sadomasochistic scenes initially encountered on his journeys into the Manhattan underworld—before being meticulously recreated in his studio.

• IAN CURTIS

  Unknown Pleasures

  “A change of speed, a change of style” sang Ian Curtis in the opening line of New Dawn Fades: a track from Joy Division’s first album, Unknown Pleasures, released in 1979. By accident or design, this visceral debut captured the essence of Manchester at a juncture in its social and cultural history.

• THE BLACK SOFT

  Fuck art, let’s dance

  Electro/fashion/art duo The Black Soft have only been around for three years, but their influence and attitude feels much greater than their relative age. To listen to Vimeo’s description of the pair one might assume they had spent decades forging an identity.

• Phillip Adams BalletLab

  Heightening the human experience through collaboration

  Phillip Adams BalletLab is a company defined by collaboration, not because its collaborators make the work, but because the collaboration is the work. It is a site for expression and experimentation, for the unheard and the unspeakable. The company’s practice enacts a dialogue between artists, ideas, research, sound, movement, fashion and architecture.

• SHAPING SOUND

  In conversation with Alexander Briger

  Alexander Briger, Founder and Artistic Director of the Australian World Orchestra (AWO), sees the conductor as both an artist and a craftsman whose role is to shape sound.

• DAVID BOWIE

  The art of death

  Saturday 18 November 1978, thousands of us were huddled under clear plastic sheets, doing what we could to keep the rain out. Darkness had fallen. We were waiting for David Bowie. It was Bowie’s first visit to Australia, the excitement was palpable and the crowd was counting down the minutes until he would appear on that stage.

• FKA TWIGS

  What FKA twigs can teach us

  For twigs, the biggest fear is not being authentic. Like Kate Bush or Björk, Benjamin Clementine or Tom Waits, she is one of those rare artists who are so completely, utterly themselves that they defy neat categorisation.

• The philosophy of memory

  Neue Perspective

   

  Yet again, I put this pen to paper. The steel nib loops with a little scratch “toothy”, the aficionados call it. Balanced between thumb, index and middle fingers, it is more guided than gripped. I turn experiences into tiny gestures of the arm and hand, which leave marks behind—marks you turn back into experiences as you read.

• THE PHILOSOPHY OF DESIRE

  Neue Perspective

  Desire is always an expression of value: for this rather than that; for him rather than her; and now rather than later. Hunger, thirst, arousal, wish—these commit us to the world. Regardless of what we think, or what we think we think, desire takes over from mere existence. This is rightly frightening, threatening our ideas of liberty. Before we can deliberate and decide, we find we have already chosen.

• THE PARADOXICAL INDIVIDUAL

  Neue Perspective

  Since Aristotle, Western philosophy has constructed perspicuous epistemological systems to apprehend the nature of truth, beyond what is available to the senses. However, logical paradoxes (e.g. Russell’s Set Theory paradox) and confrontations with the ineffable (e.g. Nagarjuna and the two truths) have resulted in disparate philosophical methodology

• THE SENSORIAL ECONOMY OF LUXURY

  Neue Perspective

  We live in a very anodyne world and frankly it’s bland. Eccentricity is not well regarded. Women no longer walk pet black pigs in Hyde Park with their trotters gilded—as some did before the First World War—or dye their doves rainbow colours, as did Lord Gerald Berners at his country home.

• JOHN ALBRECHT

  Obsession is passion out of control

  Once upon a time collectors were as eclectic and obsessive as the grand auction house themselves and true collectors filled their homes with their obsessions. “It’s become too sanitised,” says John Albrecht, proprietor and managing director of Leonard Joel, lamenting a change in collecting habits.

• GENERATIONAL APPEAL

  Neue Perspective

  I recently discovered the term ‘power millennial’ and fell in love with images of Cara Delevingne in a cat suit, saving 20-somethings from urban ennui. And Gigi Hadid, tweeting her 34.4 million closest friends how to best belt their new Gucci bag. But while millennial ‘it girls’ are definitely a thing, they’re not as omnipotent as their antecedents— girls like Kate Moss or Chloë Sevigny. Why not? Because to millennials, luxury brands are no longer high church.