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The French maison’s long-running Lady Dior As Seen By project, which invites artists to create artworks inspired by the iconic bag, is making its Singapore debut as part of the Lady Dior House exhibition. This edition also sees the participation of Singapore artists for the first time – here, Samuel Xun, Grace Tan and Genevieve Chua shares more.
BY KENG YANG SHUEN - PUBLISHED 18 JUL 2024
This week marks the opening of a major Dior show in Singapore. Lady Dior House – the maison’s travelling exhibition on the Lady Dior – touches down in Singapore from July 18 – August 11 at 5 Jiak Kim Street, and a key highlight of this show is the Lady Dior As Seen By (LDASB) initiative.
For the uninitiated, LDASB is a project which Dior launched in 2011, inviting artists globally to create non-commercial, one-of-a-kind artworks inspired by the iconic Lady Dior bag. It’s a nice complement to the maison’s existing Dior Lady Art (DLA) range, which also sees artists transforming the Lady Dior into artist-designed bags that are available for sale, though in very limited quantities.
Art has long been in the DNA of Dior – after all, founder Christian Dior was an astute art dealer back in 1928 – he even had his own art gallery that represented the avant-garde artists of the period – long before he became a couturier.
For the first time, three Singapore artists were invited to participate in LDASB – the multidisciplinary Samuel Xun, sculptor Grace Tan and painter Genevieve Chua. Here they share more on the works they’ve created for Dior and what the opportunity represents for them:
Formerly trained in fashion design, the 30-year-old has made a name for himself in recent years for his vivid, glittery sculptures and installations that are his way of exploring notions of alternative identities and personal histories. His signature vibrant colour palette and ornamentation of surfaces reflect Xun’s current interest in how textiles and materials can take on contexts of queerness through their history and how they’re used in different situations.
KYS: Hello Samuel, you studied fashion design in school and moved on to become an artist. What’s the story behind that?
SX: My background and training is as a costume maker – that perhaps unlocked my desire to become a visual artist. The desire to make work outside the confines of the body propelled me to try newer forms of making. I take it as my time to learn key lessons in form, color, and texture that have stayed with me to this day.
KYS: Tell us how you’ve reinterpreted the Lady Dior. What was the inspiration, and how did you translate it into the final work?
SX: I’ve more or less reinterpreted the Lady Dior using one of my strongest points as an artist – my visual language. I took cues from previous works I had done up until then and went with a more concise, manicured outlook for the work. The serpentine lines, graduating colours, and shiny textures were keystones in my works that I wanted very much to incorporate into the final sculpture… The work was hand assembled from start to finish, with the finished work exactly one and a half times the size of a medium Lady Dior.
The conceptual intent leaned into the idea of lightness and darkness of being, mirroring some of the more abstract philosophical moments of thought in my mind that I have continually expressed through my works.
KYS: How did you meld both Dior’s and your own artistic identity into the work?
SX: I was quite adamant that it had to still look like the iconic Lady Dior we all recognise. I felt it would have been wrong or maybe even disrespectful to stray too far from the object of reference. I thus injected myself through how I responded to the bag’s form and details, and how I envisioned its materiality… With regards to materials, I decided upon a dégradé metallised ribbon, which I ruched and then applied onto a custom wood frame. The work was hand-assembled from start to finish, with the finished work exactly one and a half times the size of a medium Lady Dior.
KYS: As someone who’s familiar with fashion, what does Dior represent to you?
SX: Dior has always led the charge in telling fantastical stories through visual means. From the days of John Galliano to Raf Simons, and now to present-day Maria Grazia Chiuri, they all offered something new not only to the house but to the world at large. It was collections like Dior couture F/W 2010 that really had a hand in shaping what I perceive beauty to be.
KYS: The Lady Dior is one of the most iconic bags by the maison. How much of a bag person would you say you are, and how might this have influenced the work created for Lady Dior As Seen By?
SX: I love bags — one Lady Dior and Saddle in every color, every size, please, thank you, next. I feel like my prior knowledge of the legacy of the Lady Dior helped for sure. Throughout the years, there have definitely been many iterations of the bag, but I personally think the undisputed true form is that 5:6 ratio of the medium-sized Lady Dior with the cannage. It’s the small things that truly make the bag, and I’ve definitely utilised them in my conceptualization of my artwork.
KYS: What do you hope to express through this project?
SX: Aside from what I’ve mentioned about encapsulating myself in the work and evoking a sense of connection with the viewer, I hope the work paves the way, as others have done for me, for future interdisciplinary collaborations and artistic endeavours with Singaporean artists. This is just a tiny portion of an immensely richer and more vibrant larger picture.
Featured images courtesy of Dior
DIOR ✷ THE MAKING OF
Featured media courtesy of Dior