Fairy-God Mother, Fashion-Mother art series by Hormazd Narielwalla. Images of artwork courtesy of Hormazd Narielwalla.
Hormazd Narielwalla: Fairy-God, Fashion-Mother.
8th November 2011 – 7th January 2012.
The Modern Pantry, 47-48 St John’s Square, Clerkenwell Square, EC1V 4JJ.
Artist Hormazd Narielwalla’s is intrigued with the interpretation of tailoring patterns. His work which mars the lines of illustration and art is an exploration of the human form through abstract shapes sourced from Savile Row bespoke tailoring patterns.
Narielwalla creates new perspective by taking the patterns out of their usual context.
This fascination with pattern blocks earned him the only International Rector’s Scholarship from the University of Arts, London at London College of Fashion; focusing on military tailoring patterns deriving a historical and artistic narrative on the construction of uniforms of the British Raj archived at the National Army Museum.
He notably held his first solo exhibition (entitled A Study on Anansi) at fashion designer Paul Smith’s London Mayfair gallery. Narielwalla has followed that October 2009 show by exhibiting in stores and galleries in Melbourne, Stockholm, Athens and London. He is also set to show at the upcoming Scope Art Fair in New York.
The artist is author of The Savile Row Cutter (a tailoring biography of Master Tailor Michael Skinner).
His eminent solo exhibition, Fairy-God, Fashion-Mother by Narielwalla is inspired by Diane Pernet. Initially shown in Athens – Greece (at 4 Fashionshake III by Ozon Magazine), the artist creates abstract forms around Pernet using patterns from three sources; reproductions of 1960s American paper dresses archived at ATOPOS cvc (a Greek cultural centre), bespoke Savile Row pattern now redundant due to clients having passed on and original tailoring pattern drafts from a Victorian cutting book (from the London College of Fashion).
Hormazd Narielwalla is creating art that uses patterns that span the historical course of pattern making. In so doing, he is unwittingly curating within his work, the history and stories of patterns. This is seen in his use of bespoke used patterns, the Victorian antiquated and the disposable 1960′s in the Fairy-God, Fashion-Mother collection.
Given that muse for the series Pernet, is a fashion curator, can this be seen as the case of the curator (Pernet that is) being part of the curated?
Hormazd Narielwalla is currently an art practitioner in a residency with Dege & Skinner, tailors in Savile Row and a PhD candidate at LCF.
Fairy-God, Fashion-Mother by Hormazd Narielwalla opens from 8th November 2011 till 7th January at The Modern Pantry.
More on the artist here.
