Art and Soul: celebrating 10 years of Sarabande studios
As Sarabande celebrates its 10th anniversary, Sarah Burton, creative director at Givenchy, reflects on Lee Alexander McQueen's pioneering nature.
"Lee often talked about establishing a house where artists from all disciplines could work in a fearless creative environment without hierarchy, where all would inspire, collaborate and support each other," she recalls. "Sarabande embodies this vision."
Here, some of the biggest names in culture and art speak to Bazaar Art about Sarabande and how artists at the esteemed studios have inspired and influenced their work.
Sarah Burton on Lee Alexander McQueen
"Every time I visit the studios at Sarabande, the air thrums with activity. The faint smell of oil paint lingers in the corridor as I watch a digital artist dancing, their body covered in sensors; around the corner, a woodcarver painstakingly chisels wooden tulips as sewing machines whirr. In the kitchen, the artists are talking, working things out together – forming their own smaller communities that will be their support system for years to come.
"In many ways, Sarabande represents the early Alexander McQueen studio in Hoxton Square, where I began my journey at McQueen 27 years ago. Like Sarabande, I remember the studio being alive with raw energy, passion and unfettered creativity.
"We were always looking for creatives in different disciplines; Lee never limited himself to working only with fashion people. I would hunt for a bedmaker to make the iron showpiece he had just envisioned, or a glassblower willing to attempt an impossibly fragile bodice for a model to wear.Lee loved the conversation between different visionaries and makers that all fed into making his dreams possible.
"Next year, the studios that were started by my friend, the brilliant Trino Verkade, will celebrate their 10-year anniversary. Trino was such a huge part of the birth and success of McQueen – she was his first employee – and she continues to work tirelessly to support every kind of creative. The foundation’s studios have helped hundreds of artists to further develop their passion into careers. The artists meet or are mentored by the best in the business – be that in fashion, art, film or jewellery. Lee loved women and this story shines a light on just a handful of the dozens of astounding, talented women that Sarabande has nurtured.
"The majority of those whom Sarabande has helped with studios have been artists, not fashion designers – sculptors, painters, performing and photographic artists... Lee had a place at Slade before he died. And this broad mix of creatives works its own kind of magic. It is fair to say that Sarabande Foundation created the model that other brands are now starting to replicate as they up studio spaces. I am in awe of the richness of the talent and I applaud its belief that success isn’t just commercial.
"Sarabande is a jewel, an incredibly special place where all individuals and ideas have importance, a home where everyone is supported and nurtured, and at the same time challenged to achieve their best. Sarabande is where dreams become reality. I am sure Lee would be very proud of it."
Michaela Yearwood-Dan, contemporary artist, on Harriet Horton
"I met Harriet while I was a resident at Sarabande. She was making taxidermy of creatures using neon lights and resin – beautiful, delicate pieces of prawns, octopus, birds; it was like a meeting of science and art. Now, she runs a shop and gallery in the Highlands, called Deluxe Miscellanea, with her partner Emma, who is also an artist. It’s a beautiful space in which she creates talismans and sculptures made from natural materials. Harriet and Emma invite creatives to pitch ideas around their practice. There is a shared meal that everyone pays to attend, then they all vote anonymously for the artist they think needs the money to develop their work. It reminds me of the way that Sarabande built a community. The art world is all very big-city-centred, so there’s something lovely about Deluxe Miscellanea existing in this ambient old mill at the edge of the country."
Shona Heath, art director and set designer, on Jo Grogan
"I share a love of pattern and ornament, folk and the kitsch that Jo uses in her woodcarving. Wood is not a quick-result medium, and I praise her perseverance, especially as she creates intricate work. By choosing an ‘old craft’ that 3D printing could ‘replicate’, she continues the conversation between crafts with simple organic materials and human endeavour."
Gwendoline Christie, actress, on Judas Companion
"I love that Judas Companion’s masks are wearable art. Imagine how transformed you’d be by wearing one – how it would completely change people’s attitudes to you and your experience of the world. Would it create fear or terror or fascination? What an alternative experience you could have, just slipping on this little pile of wool and crystal, beads and yarn.
"A particularly striking piece is a knitted orange mask with a bold, almost grotesquely wide mouth complete with diamond teeth. Is it a smile or a grimace? One eye is blind, the other is an open hole that you see the world out of if you’re wearing the mask or, if unworn, stands as an empty void. Where the other eye should be situated is a cluster of crystals, almost like coagulated blood – perhaps the eye has been gouged out? Maybe it never existed at all.
"There is a violence in this aesthetic that makes me think more deeply about what we’re seeing and experience an unconventional new beauty.Judas has now expanded her work to performance, painting and sculpture, and she uses ceramics in the masks and makes films. All initially inspired by Alexander McQueen!"
Maggi Hambling, artist, on Laila Tara H
"There are two works from a recent show that I read as a diptych, each work titled Conjunction (I and II). As an art student in the 1960s in London, I would visit the British Museum and study Chinese and Japanese landscape and ink works on paper: I strongly identify with the belief that where one does not touch the surface is as important as where one does. Laila's work embodies this discipline, amplifying the inherent conflict they depict - the woman and flames in Conjunction I and the escape to peace in Conjunction II. Artists often try to say more with more...as I get older, I try to say more with less. One should always approach a work of art in silence, and imagination is crucial: Laila's work allows one the space to imagine, with a mediative rhythm that also resonates with the work of Agnes Martin, a great master whom I admire."
Kate Bryan, chief art director of Soho House, on Darcey Fleming
"Darcey’s art is so avant garde; I was floored by her originality when I first walked into her studio. I love the way it disrupts the historic tradition of weaving by using baler twine – this discarded material mostly used by farmers – and turning it into something precious, in bright yellow and green. Within 10 minutes of seeing her work, I commissioned her to create a huge installation at Soho Farmhouse. It will be the biggest piece in our collection.
"Watching her create has been so inspiring she is so meticulous and was clearly born to be an artist."
Sandy Powell, film costume designer, on Daisy Collingridge
"When I met Burt, I was immediately struck by him, so I sat next to him to talk. Burt is one of Daisy’s creations – a pink, wearable work of art – and it turned out that Daisy was inside. Daisy studied womenswear at Central Saint Martins, but was always more interested in fabric than fashion. She likes the idea of bodies that aren’t the same as your own; showing the inside and the outside at the same time – realising that we’re all the same underneath. Her work isn’t typically pretty, although, of course, I find it beautiful."
Sam Taylor-Johnson, film director and artist, on Kasia Wozniak
"I hadn’t seen anyone use the wet-plate collodion process [an early photographic practice] in a large format for a long time. Kasia’s work was so good that I let her know via Instagram that I thought her photographs were truly arresting. They look as though they could be from the 1930s, yet there’s something a little modern about them as well. They’re mysterious. When you take a portrait and the process of it isn’t so immediate, it creates a different texture on the surface, and an atmosphere around what’s photographed.
"In this era in which everyone’s a photographer, to use a still and lengthy process is such a perfect idea – a step back to composition technique, and being thoughtful and slow. The subjects would have had to sit very still, and just ponder the moment. I’d love to commission one because I think they’re so special."
Hikari Yokoyama, founder of the design studio Naum House, on Hannah Norton
"Hannah Norton primarily works with communities of people who are underrepresented in the cultural landscape, and her subjects piqued my curiosity – who is the person, where are they from, what are they feeling, what does it say about society today? It’s true storytelling through the photographic medium."
Maria Balshaw, director of Tate, on Clara Pinto
"I’m always interested in the interface between fashion and design and fine art. Clara caught my eye via the discovery lab that London Fashion Week does in partnership with Sarabande – her wool clothes looked to me like sculpture.
"The first piece I saw was a marvellous black coat with sleeves in a cape shape. She uses a felting technique to pull various colours of wool through, so it’s very abstract interms of its pattern. It made me think of the amazing womenartists who recreate the female form in subversive ways,often using textiles, such as Sarah Lucas or Louise Bourgeois.
"I also see her as a practitioner who has a lot in common with contemporary indigenous makers, who view the traditions that they inherit and the world through the long lens of sustainability. So, Clara takes traditional Argentinian practices and uses them for a contemporary end. She embraces the cutting edge of technology to enhance textile design, but for grounded, sustainable reasons, and draws on the past while thinking powerfully into the future."
Sadie Coles, founder of Sadie Coles HQ, on Rachel Fleming Hudson
"I like the time-travelling aspect of Rachel's work: her image of football fans is a disconcertingly accurate recreation of my life in the Seventies. It captures the all-consuming feeling of being in a teenage gang, the intense connection, the passionate obsession and the sartorial signalling. Everything then, from clothes and hairstyles to feminism and politics, was home-made, goofy and
hopeful.
"What is interesting is that the photographs are created now. They are performative, the opposite of documentary: a restaging that is ultimately theatre. Painstakingly crafted images like this are
especially compelling in a time when AI and the internet have had such an impact on authenticity."
Trino Verkade, Sarabande Founder, on Saelia Aparico
"Saelia applied for a Sarabande studio in 2016. Initially, she presented multiple sculptures showing the extent of her work, which included glass-blowing, wood sculptures and powerful and arresting murals, which she paints freehand with a skill that is mind-blowing. But my favourite pieces are the anthropomorphic women stools she created here. Each series animates individual women, they are multicultural and, as they stack together, their unity gives a feeling of a tower of strength. Saelia continues to create work that is challenging and sometimes awkward for the viewer, but always engaging - there is almost a childlike fascination with form and the human body. Her pieces show us the beauty of the world hidden behind a twisted, strange, but charming viewpoint."
Cementing its reputation as London’s best boulevard for fashion and fine art, Mayfair’s ever-elegant Mount Street is hosting a week-long celebration of culture and creativity, where cross-disciplinary conversation is encouraged. Swing by talks and pop-up events at Erdem, Marni or Toteme en route to 5 Carlos Place, which Alexander McQueen’s art foundation Sarabande is taking over to showcase the jewellery, photography, painting and sculptures made by the artists it supports – including the 11 rising stars profiled in Bazaar Art.
Mount Street Neighbourhood Arts Festival runs until 12 October. For more information, visit mayfairldn.com
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