We have recently worked with renowned clothing designer, Rui Xu, on her debut exhibition ‘From Xuan to Blindness’ at The Royal College of Art, which presents her definitive idea about beauty and authenticity of Chineseness’. With more than 20 years as a practitioner of traditional Chinese painting and calligraphy, Rui Xu aims to take the best of the cultural and historic legacy of China and translate it to today’s high-fashion wearers. The exhibition is comprised of clothing and textiles, and Direct to Media UV photographic prints on wood and steel.
“The experiments in textiles have led Xu to explore new possible spaces for fashion. Opening the space within the woven structure of her textiles Rui works with metallic paints to create enigmatic layers of surface and substrate. Rui works with traditional silk taffeta, silk organza, silk voile and crepe. She also works with many polymer fabrics, creating an iridescent shimmering ephemeral light which reflects from her garments and illuminates surrounding surfaces. The dazzling painting is reminiscent of calligraphic brushstrokes. Graceful, loose, liquid, flowing the gestures are bold. The movements of the painted surfaces are choreographed dance like. They remind us of the compelling entrancement of clothes brought to life by bodies moving. The fashion pieces are displayed in a dance, the garments hang, mysterious as a veil, on horizontal rods. These remind us that garments are the art we wear. The painted cloth draws an arc between the power of a canvas and the sublime pace of garments on the body.” – Exhibition curator Dr. Claire Pajaczkowska, Royal College of Art.
The exhibition is comprised of three sections; part 1 ‘Xuan: 井’shaped upper garment＋ æ–‡’shaped trousers= Xiang Wang Yi’, part 2 ‘Xu’s Landscape’ and part 3 ‘Blindness: the Beauty of Burning Colours’.
Rui Xu: ‘From Xuan to Blindness’ at The Royal College of Art
21 – 30 August 2015, open 10.00 – 19.00 Daily
Upper Gulbenkian Gallery,
Royal College of Art,
Kensington Gore,
London,
SW7 2EU