No, this is exhibition is not about Nobel laureate Bob Dylan and his famous song “Blowin’ in the Wind.” This is about an environmental art project in Milan, the first in Italy specifically dedicated to the work of American artist Rachel Hayes, entitled Blowing in the Wind and opened on April 14th in the Missoni showroom in via Solferino.
Curated by Mariuccia Casadio, the exhibition begins to immediately unfold in the external corridor upon entry and continues through to the internal spaces, juxtaposing the themes of light and air through two very different and opposing acceptations.
Inside, three suspended macro structures, or cages, are covered in small, polychromatic modules of gelatine plastic activated by fans and electric projectors that move the compositions, generating and diffusing reflections and colorful plays of light and shade while inducing low-tech resonances—the sounds of mechanical contrivances—within the surrounding space.
Outside, patchwork bands of multicolored semitransparent fabrics compose a long, suspended canopy that welcomes the visitors and becomes a filter to the natural elements and the random effects related to the season, hour of day and atmospheric conditions and interferences.
Blowing in the Wind: A modular, multicolored textile brought to life by the wind as though it were a parachute or fluttering flag; a gigantic patchwork that spectacularly plays on and amplifies the effects of light and air.
A lightweight fabric, both transparent and translucent, that forms and transforms the landscape and architecture, bodies of water and expanses of sky. Large scale environmental art interacts with the natural elements, seasons and hours of the day.
It incorporates the warmth of the home, artisanal craft, blankets sewn by hand or fashioned from a loom into the vastness of coastal expanses and desert lands, public areas and exhibition spaces; refashioning the work into an original and reactive interweaving of vastness and intimacy, contemporaneity and memory.
A surge of emotions and chromatic variations, forms that come to life and open themselves up to a dialogue with the encircling world; the environmental works in Blowing in the Wind summarize the experiences of Rachel Hayes, born in the vicinity of Kansas City and now a resident of Tulsa.
Hayes found in the culture of textiles and the textures, transparencies and varied tones of silks or nylons, polyesters or acetates, the instruments for a construction that is soft, malleable, feminine, contemporary and atemporal; becoming the link that joins past and present, a bridge suspended between earth and sky, nature and culture, art and technique and free-flowing imagination.
Extraordinarily empathic to the Missoni lexicon, the works of American artist Rachel Hayes—already embraced by Angela to contextualize the 2018 Summer runway collection in celebration of her 20th anniversary as creative director and subsequently featured in the latest campaign and a custom-designed indoor installation for the Missoni flagship store on Madison Avenue.
Photos courtesy of Missoni
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