Now Open: Iris van Herpen’s Stunning Couture Designs Have Arrived Down Under at GOMA’s ‘Sculpting the Senses’ Exhibition

Overview

What does Brisbane have in common with music superstars Beyoncé, Björk, Lady Gaga and Rihanna, and also Oscar-winners Cate Blanchett and Tilda Swinton? An appreciation for fashion designer Iris van Herpen. The avant-garde Dutch talent has dressed them all, including creating the breathtaking Heliosphere dress that proved a showstopper on Beyoncé’s Renaissance tour. The latter gigs haven’t made it Down Under, but the Australian-exclusive Sculpting the Senses exhibition at the Queensland capital’s Gallery of Modern Art will take you into the world of the haute couture figure who played a part in it.

Fashion lovers have until Monday, October 7, 2024 to explore one of GOMA’s big showcases for 2024, which continues to plunge the South Brisbane site into an enchanting and ethereal realm after Fairy Tales, its huge summer exhibition, did the same. Pieces by van Herpen can’t be mistaken for designs by anyone else, sitting at the intersection of couture, art and design, while also exploring technological advancements such as 3D printing. In that field, she’s widely considered the first to make a garment this way.

From gowns to accessories, a massive 130 of van Herpen’s pieces are now on display in the River City. Across nine chapters — some nodding to the dreamlike sheen that accompanies the designer’s pieces, others focusing on skeletal structures, inspirations, and how the sea and the cosmos are an influence — Iris van Herpen: Sculpting the Senses steps through the work of a creative who boasts stints alongside Alexander McQueen and Claudy Jongstra on her resume. It was almost two decades back, in 2007, that the Maison Iris van Herpen came to life in Amsterdam. Evoking her studio, complete with a cabinet of curiosities, is also part of GOMA’s celebration. In this section of the exhibition, attendees will also see a space dedicated to fashion shows and unpack the various development stages of a dress.

Hitting Brisbane after a run in Paris, co-organised by the Musée des Arts Décoratifs, and boasting the organisation’s Dr Cloé Pitiot and Louise Curtis on curatorial duties alongside QAGOMA’s Nina Miall and Jacinta Giles, Iris van Herpen: Sculpting the Senses takes its name seriously. This is a feast for the eyes, clearly, but also comes paired with a soundscape by Dutch sound artist Salvador Breed — not just a collaborator of van Herpen’s, but her partner — to enhance the experience.

Among the specific fashion gems featured, the exhibition draws from 2010’s water-themed ‘Crystallization’ collection, which took its cues from water being splashed at models; 2020’s ‘Sensory Seas’, with hydrozoa such as the bluebottle an influence; and 2012’s ‘Micro’ and ‘Hybrid Holism’, each teeming with microscopic detail that mimics the natural world — just for starters. Elsewhere, van Herpen’s designs use X-rays, MRIs, neuroscience, mythology, alchemy, biotech, NASA’s James Webb space telescope and more as guides.

In one clear highlight, 2019’s cape-slash-dress Hypnosis, she deploys a kaleidoscopic pattern in inky black to touch upon the mind’s movement between the conscious and unconscious — and, in the process, also fashions up an optical illusion.

Visitors will equally spy a range of complementary pieces surrounding van Herpen’s designs, weaving in Yayoi Kusama, Cai Guo-Qiang, Japanese art collective Mé and Kohei Nawa, for instance. Megan Cope, Philip Beesley, Anne Noble, Damien Jalet, Casey Curran, Rogan Brown, Ren Ri and Courtney Mattison also have works in Iris van Herpen: Sculpting the Senses, as does the Living Architecture Systems Group. Natural history objects add yet another layer. The dramatic staging, especially when van Herpen’s work is set against a black background, achieves the same. Similarly featuring: installations, videos and photographs.

Designs by van Herpen are unsurprisingly no stranger to galleries and museums, with New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art, Paris’ Palais Galliera and Melbourne’s National Gallery of Victoria among the institutions to include her work in their collections.

Iris van Herpen: Sculpting the Senses displays at the Gallery of Modern Art, Stanley Place, South Brisbane, from Saturday, June 29–Monday, October 7, 2024 — for more information, head to the venue’s website.

Top images: Iris van Herpen / Netherlands b.1984 / Daniel Widrig (Collaborator) / United Kingdom b.1977 / Materialise (Collaborator) / Belguim est.1990 / Crystallization top and skirt, from the ‘Capriole’ collection 2011 / 3D-printed polyamide using selective laser sintering, eco-leather, cotton, nylon thread / Purchased thanks to the patronage of Doctor and Madam Léon Crivain, 2018 / Collection: Musée des Arts Décoratifs, Paris. // Courtney Mattison / United States b.1985 / Malum Geminos 2019 / Glazed stoneware and porcelain / Courtesy: The artist. // Iris van Herpen / Netherlands b.1984 / Nicholas Koscinski (Collaborator)/ United States b.1992 / Futurama gown, from the ‘Meta Morphism’ collection 2022 / 3D-printed Bluesint (upcycled polyamide) using selective laser sintering, silver, silk, organza, tulle / Courtesy: Iris van Herpen atelier. // © The artists / Photograph: C Callistemon © QAGOMA

Installation view of ‘Iris van Herpen: Sculpting the Senses’ including (front l-r) Symbiotic asymmetric dress, from the ‘Shift Souls’ collection 2019 by Iris van Herpen; Fractal Flows dress, from the ‘Sensory Seas’ collection 2020 by Iris van Herpen with collaborator Perry Hall; and Cosmica gown, from the ‘Shift Souls’ collection 2019 by Iris van Herpen with collaborator Kim Keever / © Iris van Herpen / Photograph: C Callistemon © QAGOMA.

Installation view of ‘Iris van Herpen: Sculpting the Senses’. (l) Iris van Herpen / Netherlands b.1984 / Holozoic dress, from the ‘Hybrid Holism’ collection 2012 / Eco-leather, Swarovski crystals / Courtesy: Iris van Herpen atelier / © Iris van Herpen. (r) Tim Walker (Photographer) / United Kingdom b.1970 / Iris van Herpen (Designer) / Netherlands b.1984 / David Altmejd (Sculptor) / Canada b.1974 / Duckie Thot (Model) / Australia b.1995 / Kiki Willems (Model) / Netherlands b.1996 / Fashion: Iris van Herpen 2018 / Exhibition print / Courtesy: Tim Walker Studio / © Tim Walker. Photograph: C Callistemon © QAGOMA.

Installation view of ‘Iris van Herpen: Sculpting the Senses’. (l)目[mé] / Japan est.2012 / Contact 2023 / Mixed media / Courtesy: The artists. (r) Iris van Herpen / Netherlands b.1984 / Shelee Carruthers (Collaborator) / Australia b.1977 / Hydrozoa dress, from the ‘Sensory Seas’ collection 2020 / PETG, glass organza / Courtesy: Iris van Herpen atelier. Photograph: C Callistemon © QAGOMA.

Installation view of ‘Iris van Herpen: Sculpting the Senses’ including (front) Cosmica gown, from the ‘Shift Souls’ collection 2019 by Iris van Herpen with collaborator Kim Keever / © Iris van Herpen / Photograph: C Callistemon © QAGOMA.