A fashion designer turns stage lights into art, but it still feels like a show
The line between runway and gallery is thinner than a model’s skirt.
The story
Alexandre de Betak, known for fashion show sets, is launching a solo art exhibition in New York featuring light sculptures made from metal and glass.
Source: wwd.com
Our reading
De Betak’s new exhibition uses the same trusses and stage lights that once lit up fashion shows, now repurposed to illuminate art. It’s like a fashion show that forgot it was a fashion show, and just wanted to be taken seriously as a museum exhibit.
The result is a kind of surrealism where the tools of spectacle are stripped of their original purpose, leaving only the glow and the structure. It’s not clear if the art is about light, or if the light is just a way to make the structure look important.
Maybe the real trick is that the art is still, somehow, a bit too flashy for a gallery and too quiet for a runway. It’s the fashion world’s version of a middle finger to both sides.
