Exhibition
Paul Bench - Drawing A Collection - Centre For Recent Drawing
Centre for Recent Drawing is honoured to be showing the original sketches for Paul Bench’s Debut Spring Summer collection 2011. The drawings of a fashion designer, alongside the clothes themselves first shown on London Fashion week menswear day this September. The Collection, described by Bench as “simultaneously boyish and austere, serious and playful, the collection is part fantasy, part based o...n wardrobe basics” can now be seen in the unique context- from line to physicality.
Bench’s beautiful succinct images show how the naissance of an idea is transformed from utilitarian 2D drawing into tactile 3D clothing. Drawing is a necessity for Bench, the moment an idea is pinned to a drawn body the garment begins its path to realisation. With the precision of an architect the image is the starting point. Strong solid lines map out the route of the scissors and needle. The concise cartoon of the male form cloned like a mannequin in his diagrams is then robed with the marker pen in each outfit.
The transformation from idea, to image to clothes is one that for Bench is uniquely intertwined with drawing. His constant sketching demonstrates his strong use of line, colour and wash/dying, techniques that are visible in his clothing as well. This gives Bench the ability to boldly finalise his ideas in these striking, simple yet complete 11 designs. Many of the final garments include hand drawn elements, from the beautiful bleeding brushstrokes painted directly onto fabric, to the large yet delicate block patches of silk/metalic hand knitting. The pen line that is so deliberate and aware in his drawings is carried over into the clothing in a striking way that continuously references the bold mark of the designers hand. These lines are continued with his use of sections of rubber against the soft cotton, a fabric gesture of punctuation. Bench’s use of only two or three base fabrics, is enhanced by his exciting use of hand dying, he has painted himself a pallet of beiges, and blues, that through the individual hand treatments, are unique, yet sit alongside one another to create a coherent collection.
Presenting Bench’s essentially private preparatory sketches in the gallery space highlights the utilitarian nature of his approach to drawing. Clothing normally being the visible final product and drawings an invisible byproduct. Seeing them side by side we can see how this individual approach to the act of drawing, the images themselves and the final product are constantly feeding into one another, drawing as part of process.
This show is Curated by Paul Kindersley.
Please join us for the Opening Reception, Wednesday the 24th November from 6-8pm.
The show will run until the 3rd of December, open wed-fri 12-6pm, or by appointment contact paulkindersley@hotmail.com
