ARTFORUM — RICK OWENS TRIENNALE DI MILANO — MAY 2018 — BY SIMONE MENEGOI

MAY 2018

‘I WOULD LAY A BLACK GLITTERING TURD ON THE WHITE LANDSCAPE OF CONFORMITY,’ RICK OWENS WROTE IN THE LATE 1990S. HOWEVER BOMBASTIC THIS SOUNDS, THE NEXT TWENTY YEARS OF THE FASHION AND FURNITURE DESIGNER’S CAREER HAVE BROADLY CONFIRMED HIS INTENTION. AND NOW THAT THE TRIENNALE DI MILANO HAS CELEBRATED HIM WITH A RETROSPECTIVE—NO LESS SENSATIONALLY TITLED ‘SUBHUMAN INHUMAN SUPERHUMAN,’ PRESENTED BY ELEONORA FIORANI, THE CURATOR OF ITS FASHION DEPARTMENT—THE TURD CITED IN OWENS’S MANIFESTO HAS FOUND MATERIAL FORM. IN A GIGANTIC SCULPTURE/STAGE SET, A BLACK BLOB OF SAND, CEMENT, AND ORGANIC MATERIALS (INCLUDING THE ARTIST’S OWN HAIR) TWISTED AND TURNED, WINDING ABOVE AND BELOW THE ENTIRE LENGTH OF THE EXHIBITION PATH. AROUND AND BENEATH THE SCULPTURE, PRIMAL HOWL, 2017, A CROWD OF MANNEQUINS FLAUNTED SOME OF THE CLOTHING FOR WHICH OWENS HAS GAINED A CULT FOLLOWING. THE NONCHRONOLOGICAL PRESENTATION OPENED WITH A SIZABLE ENSEMBLE OF WOMEN’S WEAR IN EXQUISITE SHADES OF IVORY WHITE, DRAPED IN ARCHAIC STYLE, WITH THE MANNEQUINS POSITIONED HIGH UP LIKE TEMPLE CARYATIDS—BUT THE FIGURES ALL HAD MALE FEATURES. THE CENTRAL SECTION, WHERE BLACK PREDOMINATED ALONGSIDE LEATHER HIDES, HELPED TO EXPLAIN LABELS SUCH AS ‘GLUNGE’ (A CONTRACTION OF ‘GLAMOUR’ AND ‘GRUNGE’) AND ‘AVANT-GOTH,’ COINED TO DEFINE OWENS’S AESTHETIC. WHAT STOOD OUT IN THE FINAL PORTION, WHICH FOLLOWED CLOTHING FROM HIS RUNWAY SHOWS FROM RECENT YEARS (ALSO SEEN IN A SELECTION OF VIDEOS), WERE UNEXPECTED EXPLOSIONS OF COLOR, WHILE THE FORMS OF THE GARMENTS, INCREASINGLY EXTREME, SHOWED THE DESIGNER FOLLOWING A SCULPTURAL LOGIC THAT DISREGARDED THE LINES OF THE BODY. THROUGH ALL THESE MUTATIONS, OWENS’S STYLE STILL REMAINED PROFOUNDLY CONSISTENT, MARKED BY TWO BASIC AND DEFINING CHARACTERISTICS: THE DESIGNER’S TENDENCY TO IGNORE THE PRESENT TO ADDRESS EITHER THE DISTANT PAST OR AN IMAGINED AND OFTEN POSTAPOCALYPTIC FUTURE, AND HIS INDIFFERENCE TO FUNCTIONALITY IN FAVOR OF A STRONG SYMBOLIC CHARGE, IN TURN PRIESTLY OR WARLIKE: CAPES INSTEAD OF JACKETS; TUNICS RATHER THAN DRESSES; HIGH, FUTURISTIC BUSKINS AS SHOES.