The exposition about the work of Iris van Herpen and her inspirations opens today at Central Museum in my hometown Utrecht; 'The new craftsmanship'. Yesterday night I got a chance to join the press opening, talk to Iris and take a few snapshots of the collection. The idea of the exposition is to put the sources of inspiration that Iris gets from art next to the final finished designs.
A curious thing was that all of her inspirations coincidentally happened to be in the main collection of the Central Museum. Therefor it didn't feel like an authentic set up, but rather like an exposition to show how great the museum's newly purchased pieces from Iris van Herpen fit in their collection.
Also it was interesting to hear that in the speech of the curators, they didn't refer to her work as art but explicitly named it fashion. While the fashionworld likes to put the art-tag on her designs. However, the exposition was mainly focussed on fashion. The old artworks from the museum served a decorative purpose, nothing more than a nice background setting for her designs. Like for example the leather gold shoes were presented on a shiny pillar with a seventeenth century Dutch heritage gold printed leather wallpapewith hanging behind them.
Nonetheless it is always a joy to see the craftmanship, detailing and great dedication Iris van Herpen puts in her designs from up close. If you happen to be in Utrecht before October 29, save some time to pay a visit to the Central Museum.