For the past decade, Los Angeles – based artist Candice Lin has investigated the cultures and histories embedded in objects and materials related to colonial trade, alternative healing practices, and bodily functions. These include tobacco, urine, and tea as well as live insects and dead animals- in other words, things that carry stranger textures, more pungent scents, and heavier burdens than typical art materials. She is also a skilled and endlessly curious craftsperson who transforms these things and the stories they tell into artworks that mobilize critical issues such as RACE, GENDER, AND TRAUMA in unconventional ways.

This approach has led to some WILD combinations in recent years, including dozens of baby mice preserved in glass jar filled with alcohol and dried wheat (Recipe for Spontaneous Generation: Baby Mice [2015]), a giant papier-maché model of an ant’s head sheltering some bright pink sheepskin rugs and fungus tea ( You are a Parasite [2015]) and a hexagonal terrarium filled with live Madagascan hissing cockroaches, fed on candied fruit and a sugar-paste replica of a Chinese porcelain vase (A warner for Survalists: White Gold [2016]). It has also resulted in some significant installations commissioned for solo exhibitions at Gasworks in London (A Body Reduced to Brilliant Colour [2016]) and Bétonsalon in Paris ( A Hard White Body/ Un corps blanc exquis [2017]), both of which have informed the development of her current show, Meaningless Squiggles, at François Ghebaly gallery in Los Angeles.

Artist Candice Lin By Robert Leckie For the past decade, Los Angeles – based artist Candice Lin has investigated the cultures and histories embedded in objects and materials related to colonial trade, alternative healing practices, and bodily functions. These include tobacco, urine, and tea as well as live insects and dead animals- in other words, […]

“Embrace what makes you feel beautiful, and do it for yourself, no one else.“

“Blue is for boys; pink is for girls. Red means stop, green means go.

We have been raised in a world of binaries to make sense of the influx of information and the vast unknown that surrounds us. But who decides which constructs are right and which are wrong? Today, despite a huge leap toward the acknowledgment of individual freedom, we are still plagued by gender stereotypes and gender-based discrimination, which are a remnant of our expansive social history.

MEN and WOMEN are still expected to dress, behave, and present themselves based on pre-determined views of preconceptions that have, in many ways, stifled the development of society and humanity. While much progress has been made, marked as much by struggle as by celebration, there is still work to be done.“

“The only way we can enact change is through acceptance. Masculinity isn’t fragile enough to be shattered by social constructs. “

“Society needs to hold a mirror up itself to challenge, disrupt and transcend traditional notions of gender. “

“We need to accept the multiple facets of modern-day masculinity and redefine what it means to be a man today and tomorrow. We need to celebrate the beauty of self-expression and allow people to be who unapologetically and what they are. “

 “Embrace what makes you feel beautiful, and do it for yourself, no one else."

Is completed by casting austere yet delicate models to illuminate the archetypes behind the clothes.

The fashion industry is one where every detail counts, from the buttons down to the shoelaces. As such, each creative choice is not desultory but part of a larger statement about the comprehensive and all-encompassing vision of a brand, from the sweep of a model’s hair to the color of his or her eyes. In fact, contrary to popular belief, the model isn’t merely a human hanger, but a living embodiment of what the brand strives for, for the type of person who is supposed to live a life in these particular clothes. It’s no mistake that some runways are populated with beefy muscle-bound men who bring to mind sun-kissed Greek gods, while others feature willowy, brooding boys who look just like this side of adolescence. These are choices that have been thought out to an obsessive degree. The model is, in a way, a substitute for the viewer. It’s saying that yes, these are the clothes you should wear, but, more importantly, this is the person you will become when you wear them. What more tantalizing dream of fashion, of beauty, is there?

“You arrive at a story, a culture, a personal language that is different from those of the house. You have to be yourself, against all odds. “

“I have always interpreted the idea of masculinity as being embodied in other ways than through the body, the muscles, the commonplaces of virility.”

“I was always interested in the in “beginnings”, in the idea of the first suit, the pleasure and the young desire of a first jacket, a jacket for going out, some kind of tailoring for man devoid of statutory character, far from the constraints and conventions of the banker’s suit. This had to involve a redefinition of the codes and the silhouette.”

Is completed by casting austere yet delicate models to illuminate the archetypes behind the clothes. 

“I hate being somebody that is just cluttering the world. Im kind of teetering between making an honorable contribution and being toxic waste.”

Designer Rick Owens Blends the strange and alluring, creating a world that’s truly one-of-a-kind.

” Kindness is beautiful. Wit is beautiful. Not everybody is blessed with classical beauty, I don’t reject classical beauty. Classical beauty is wonderful. And I respond to it too. “

“I am promoting a sense of tolerance. I’m making suggestions that we think outside narrow, maybe bigoted, attitudes and that we consider being more generous and we consider options that are not so obvious.

“There is an earnestness to what I do. It can be corny, but its genuinely connecting with people who believe in a certain kind of rigorous pursuit of a certain aesthetic. “

“The naked body tells its story, it has few veils, it is less hypocritical. A dressed body is a lie, and I always look for the truth. “

“I don’t know if I’m extending the control from my body into clothes, or if I’m extending the control of the clothes to my body, but its a very symbolic thing.”

 “Im kind of teetering between making an honorable contribution and being toxic waste.”

Rick Owens Backstage Runway Women's FW19 Larry

For Artist and Photographer MUSTAFA SABBAGH, Real beauty stands witness to personal stories- it touches, stings and cuts but does not reassure.

Sabbagh has said that for him, perfection represents the true nightmare of contemporary man. What his images present time and time again is the desecration of perfection to reveal virtually limitless idiosyncrasies and variations. “Dark circles from too much work, or too much pleasure. Veins pulsing life. That rough, raw beauty between Caravaggio and Pasolini. I do not like flat life,” says Sabbagh.

“I do not like things that cannot STING ME, CUT ME, TOUCH ME DEEPLY. That’s why, to me, real BEAUTY HURTS: real beauty does not reassure. Its uncomfortable. “

Nowhere is this ethos of disturbing beauty more strongly expressed than in Sabbagh’s repeated destruction of GENDER stereotypes. His subjects consistently flirt with gender fluidity- men strut proudly in tulle skirts, women wear their hair closely cropped, female chests are bandaged flat while men’s bodies are draped in poses that highlight voluptuous curves.

“Accepting the other as an integral part of our being. Contemporary beauty does not feed on appearance but on essence. Living through truthful gestures, perceiving time as passage..."

Beauty is looking into ourselves to comprehend the world around us with both “

According to Sabbagh, each gender must be celebrated “but thinking that the human being is a reproductive organ is mere negation of humanistic progress. ” He says,

“Feeling yourself in your own body is the first step towards happiness. Diversity stands as the real sine qua non of the MODERN MAN.”

I feel man or woman in a way beyond these two polarities. The only way is to see eroticism is through their habitat: their house is their skin, their dress is their desire. “

So how does Sabbagh approach the depiction of this complex enigma that is the human body?

“Exactly like Lucio Fontana’s canvases,” he says “Through a few gestures I arrive at the perfect cut.”

Rick Owens Details Runway Women's SS20 Tecautl

FANNIE SCHIAVONI gold lola chainmail dress

“The Beauty you see in me is a reflection of you” –RUMI styled by barbara CONSTANTIN FANNIE SCHIAVONI gold chainmail dress.

Rick Owens X Champion “Stripped-Down" Campaign SS20 Tecuatl

RICK OWENS X CHAMPION "STRIPPED DOWN" CAMPAIGN SS20 TECUATL

Rick Owens Backstage Runway Women's SS20 Tecuatl

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