GRAZIA ✷ CULTURELADY DIOR HOUSE: HOW VISUAL ARTIST AND EX-COSTUME DESIGNER SAMUEL XUN MARRIES FASHION WITH ART

'You Deserve It' by Xun talks about "soft-resistance", a concept regularly explored by Maria Grazia Chiuri

BY DANISHA LIANG - PUBLISHED JUL 2024

For visual artist Samuel Xun, ‘You Deserve It’ is an art piece that pays homage to his past as a costume maker. ‘You Deserve It’ is Xun’s commissioned art piece for the Lady Dior As Seen By project, Dior’s ongoing art initiative that invites various artists from around the world to reimagine the iconic bag from the French luxuriate. As part of this initiative, artists conceptualise and reinterpret not only the shape and form of the accessory, but also examine its storied legacy and cultural impact.

And with a background in fashion, Xun is no stranger to the savoir-faire of the Dior house. Deconstructing the Cannage, a pattern of paramount significance to the Lady Dior bag, the artwork plays with the visual interest of synthetic tinsel ribbon. The lustrous adornment, commonly seen in costume design, is one example of Xun’s long-term inquiries into the power of “soft-resistance”, mirroring creative director Maria Grazia Chiuri’s own expressions of feminism since the beginning of her tenure at Dior.

More often than not, Xun’s works speak of emotionality and regularly prompt introspection. The same is achieved with ‘You Deserve It’, titled as such to elicit a wave of introspection upon one’s viewing of the artwork. Examining the mercurial nature of the self, Xun’s work probes viewers to dig deeper into one’s positions towards self-doubt and belief and introduces a layer of provocation in an otherwise open-ended piece of art.

Ahead, we chat with the 30-year-old artist about the intersections of fashion and art, and how he interpreted the Lady Dior for ‘You Deserve It’.

DL: Congrats on having an art piece commissioned with Dior for the Lady Dior House exhibition! It’s so nice to see this opportunity for a Singaporean artist.
SX:   Thank you! It is something to be proud of. I was telling some of my friends that when we see one of our own having an opportunity like this, I’m so happy. And it’s kind of weird to think that maybe, it’s my turn now!

It’s great that these things are not as few and far between as they used to be. We’re seeing a lot more people getting called on and catching the attention of these international brands. I’m happy to be featured. I’m trying not to miss the moment; I’m trying to really sink into it.

DL: Can you tell me more about how the collaborative process got started?
SX:   I was invited to do a proposal, alongside a couple of other international artists this round. [Dior] invited me to do two proposals, just so they have options. I’ve never told anybody this but the two proposals differ a lot in terms of colour, especially. The second one I proposed was fully pink. The one we see in this exhibition is the monochromatic black and white one, which is this slightly more muted version. Both versions are still very much me, even though the colours are vastly different. They’re still colours that I’ve used in my artworks previously.

DL: You mentioned that the colours in the artwork are true to your style and your work, so in your own words, how would you describe your artistic style?
SX:   For me, I think [my art is] very camp. Susan Sontag said in her essay Notes On “Camp”, that when you say something is camp, it’s not camp anymore. But for me, I’m okay with saying that it’s camp because it’s not necessarily what we think of, like in Eurocentric camp, but more like my version of what reflects my personal experiences, and even my upbringing.

At the end of the day, I think my work invites you to come into my world, my artistic universe. I hope you’re welcome to stay, and feel invited to come in. It’s supposed to be quite a warm, inviting environment. But we still talk about important topics like queerness, the queer discourse and even how we interact socially these days, especially with digital means. I feel like these things are all interconnected, like how we treat and interact with one another. These are the things that are at the forefront of my practice.

I’m quite obsessed with self-improvement as well, so there are lots of moving parts that, throughout the years, have tightened, but I’m still focused on quite a few things in my work. It’s a growing practice.

DL: Can you talk to me about the piece for the exhibition? What was the thought process that went into it? And how did you interpret the Lady Dior into the piece?
SX:   It was quite interesting when they asked me to do two proposals. They had to be quite different. It’s almost like an added challenge of almost splitting yourself. They had to be equally different objects, but then they still had to both be very much me. That is something that I felt was very important for me to do with such a project. Because if I’m just playing towards the Lady Dior bag, or making something that is just fully a homage to the bag, which does not have my own artistic imprint, it would have been almost, for the lack of a better phrase, a failure on my part as an artist.

Projects like this go beyond this one-time object because it is an object that’s in Dior’s collection now. When you think about it, it’s scary that this object is going to be representative of what you are as an artist, for however long Dior holds stewardship of the piece. In that sense, there was this fear and challenge of what I could do.

To circumvent these feelings of fear and self-sabotage, I always print small little thumbnails of everything that I’ve done, and they’re all up on my wall. I always look across my room to see what my general body of work is. From there I kind of pick up what represents me or what I felt was something that I’ve been known for. Then, I used those things to conceptualise what I envisioned for the Lady Dior. I did think about signature items [from Dior], and the savoir faire of the bag itself. So things like the Cannage pattern—I feel like that is undisputed, so I [had] to do something with that.

It’s very interesting that you have the magic of the internet so you can learn. That was one of the steps that I took; to see what other people have done before. I cannot imagine the first batch of people who did this. At this stage, we have other amazing, great people [who] have done this—some of them whom I’ve admired for years. From there, I could see how they interpreted the Lady Dior bag. I even case studied other people, to see how they have brought out that essence of themselves in their work. I take those same steps to see what my work is, and then slowly find out what my unique selling point is. So for me, it has always been about the aesthetics, materiality, form and shapes.

I’m aware that some of the greats have embarked on this with Dior as well, so to be called upon, it is a pinch-me moment. Just to see the ability of people who have managed to infuse themselves into the Lady Dior bag, it’s [mindblowing and] amazing. It’s amazing to see what people can do, and I think that was motivation for me to really find my voice.

DL: How do you see art and fashion intersecting?
SX:   Sometimes it’s about setting a space and how you present something. The recent Sleeping Beauties: Reawakening Fashion exhibition at The Met very much encompasses a particular factor that defines art and fashion. There’s this idea of wearability.

In my opinion, they gel together because all facets of every single industry, even beyond just these two, are evolving constantly. Our notions and perceptions of what can be art, what cannot be art; what can be fashion and cannot be fashion are changing—and changing for the better, I would say. At the heart of it, it’s centred around making, and the people who are conceptualising these things. It’s centred around the concepts and details, instead of just the final outcome. We’re given images of minute details because these things all matter, and we’re all interested in the making process. This is all gelling in a very interesting manner, and I feel like we’re at the cusp of this intersection.

DL: Has there been a specific experience or time in your life that impacted the way you approach your work?
SX:   Let’s say this happened two years ago, I don’t think I would have been mentally ready for something like this. I’ve been doing visual arts for about four years but I’ve been pushing off solo opportunities that I’ve been given up to this point because I was just not ready. I’m preparing for a solo exhibition next year but this Dior project is preparing me for potentially what the solo project could be. I feel like every single show or interaction I’ve had, or every artist talk I’ve done has cumulated and prepared me for something like this project [with Dior].

Pivotal moments, for me, have been about having really close artist friends that I volley with and discuss things with. I did share with these friends my proposals before I submitted them, for feedback. Like, what could be changed? So these are small little things that prepared me for the Lady Dior project.

Again, I didn’t come from a traditionally trained visual arts background, and so I had to learn about all these things from scratch. I had to learn to talk to people and create genuine connections with people.

DL: Do you often think about how you think people will perceive your work?
SX:   Not necessarily, which I think helps with a big project like Lady Dior. In [my] earlier years, I couldn’t help myself. But now I would say I’m a lot more comfortable with myself. And it kind of shows in the work, like I’m more vulnerable in the work. In my recent exhibition, it was the first time I was depicting actual objects instead of hiding behind certain abstractions, or abstract compositions. These are things that I’ve internally resolved throughout the years.

I would say that I do not necessarily care too much about what people think, because at the end of the day, the work is supposed to be representative of myself. It’s almost like I’m offering myself up on a platter, and injecting so much of myself in the work. If you don’t like the work, it’s kind of like saying, ‘You don’t like me’. I don’t think it’s very healthy if we dwell on things like that. So that’s the strategy that I take. I’m quite happy I don’t think about it that much.

I think about the fact that we’re such a small community. That’s why sometimes a project like this means so much to me, and the people around me. If a couple of people here don’t like it, it doesn’t mean much in the grand scheme of things. We can never please everybody. That’s what I’ve accepted in terms of work and life.

Featured images courtesy of Dior

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