Designer Outfits Gets Ai Weiwei Treatment

Given the opportunity to do with designer clothes as he will, Ai Weiwei dumps a bucket of paint on them, model and all. The celebrated Chinese contemporary artist and activist was given the title of artistic director of V Magazine’s fashion editorial for the new designers of Comme des Garçons Fall-Winter 2014 collection for Dover Street Market. Finding it a coincidence that he still had the 14 colors in his studio to produce his famous 2006 Colored Vases series, he seized the chance to use the same colors of paint to dump on his staff wearing the designer outfits. According to him, “Pouring a color on an outfit creates a new condition for the design. It creates a midpoint between two conflicting ideas. Gravity and the shape of the clothes combine to create a unique moment. Using these cultural products as ready-mades celebrates and reinterprets the intention of creativity. I think this act shows my respect toward their creativity.”