Overview
Where does fashion end and art start? It’s an oft-debated question, and the two are becoming increasingly indistinguishable.
This dreamlike pumpkin pop-up shop, located in Selfridges, London, is an example of what happens when the two collide. It’s a collaboration between Louis Vuitton and Japanese artist Yayoi Kusama, created by Brooklyn-based art and architecture firm MARC FORNES & THEVERYMANY.
Visitors find themselves immersed in a dizzying environment in which 84-year-old Kusama’s penchant for polka dots and passion for the surreal receive full expression. The shop’s various pumpkin-like shapes, manifesting as enormous chandeliers, squashed podiums displaying Kusama’s bags, and external ‘walls’, crisscross and overlay one another.
The centre of gravity seems to be in constant flux. According to the architects, the aim is to invoke the sensation of “a hypnotic and infinite universe”. The use of a “high-resolution perforate gradient pattern” not only expresses Kusama’s vision, but also achieves visual depth.
What’s more, the shop represents an important step in building design. It’s the first self-supported shell made entirely of carbon to have been applied to architecture, and thus may provide a prototype for the development of similar, larger structures.
Architizer is suitably impressed – the shop won the Jury Award in the Pop-Up Section of their 2013 A+ Awards.
[Via PSFK]