Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
Complementary creations
Fashion, art influence, inspire each other
In what could be described as the middle of the West Texas desert — 1.4 miles northwest of Valentine, off U.S. 90 — lies the most well-known public art project supported by the Art Production Fund. It is a 15-foot by 25-foot sculpture made of an aluminum frame, plaster and paint. Through the large glass windows, onlookers can see 14 left-footed shoes and six handbags from the Prada fall/winter collection of 2005.
“Prada Marfa is a sculpture that looks like a Prada boutique, although you cannot enter it,” says Yvonne Force Villareal, co-founder of the Art Production Fund. “It’s not a promotion of Prada in any way. The sculpture is this kind of monument to, I would say ‘consumerism’ but also to the idea of desire and not being able to necessarily obtain desire. And desire for these objects that would be totally dysfunctional within the desert where you’re standing.”
Force Villareal joins designer Lisa Perry on Thursday at Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art to speak about the intersections of art, fashion and public work in their lives and careers. Through her organization, Force Villareal has worked with several luxury fashion brands, either as a conceptual part of the project, like Prada, or as a sponsor. But she recognizes there have been connections between fashion and art since perhaps the beginning of recorded time.
People look to art throughout history to discern a subject’s status or societal role, or sometimes a deeper, symbolic truth — all through their clothing choices, she muses. As it stands today, the relationship between the fashion and art worlds seems to be more centered around how the two influence and inspire the other. Certainly this has been the case for both Perry and Force Villareal.
“The beauty of Lisa’s line is that it is very accessible. It’s definitely inspired by Pop art, it’s very wearable
and it’s also quite affordable,” Force Villareal says of her friend’s creations, a number of which reside in her own closet, of course. “So much of her inspiration has been from Pop art, artists who are making Pop art or are within that dialogue. I was invited to have that conversation with her, and also to discuss some of the projects we have produced and presented in Art Production Fund and how fashion has influenced them.”
To complement the temporary “Roy Lichtenstein In Focus” exhibition showing at Crystal Bridges, the two will also consider some of the public artworks created by Pop artists like Jeff Koons, Lichtenstein and others who have inspired them over the years.
“So kind of the cross pollination between Lisa’s vision, collection, artists of interest and mine through APF,” Force Villareal offers. “It’ll be an evening of dialogue, art-meets-fashion and how we’ve used art and fashion together in very dynamic, unprecedented ways.”
“We were wanting to highlight this magnificent exhibition we have at the museum and bring in a speaker that would show how great the continued influence of Pop art is in contemporary culture,” says Sara Segerlin, Crystal Bridges’ manager of public programs. “So you have this fantastic, interdisciplinary melting pot of fine artists, fashion, history, and it’s all placed within the dresses and other design products Lisa Perry produces.”
Force Villareal’s status as a trendsetter with APF and connections with the fashion world, as well as her and her husband Leo’s collaborations with Perry, make the duo a powerful example of interdisciplinary work to add to the Distinguished Speaker Series.
“You kind of see what happens when you have a variety of disciplines percolating around a person and the things they create,” Segerlin says. “But you’re also going to see what happens when two creative minds begin to speak to each other and what happens when you develop a good relationship with another artist or creative mind, how that can influence your own artwork.”
“We’ve done so many things together over the years, and this talk at Crystal Bridges brings us together in a wonderful way because they also have a beautiful piece of Leo’s there called ‘Buckyball’ which, for me, is a bit symbolic of our talk,” Force Villareal shares. “It’s a piece that really brings community together around this beautiful light artwork. It’s about science and transcendence, but it also refers to Pop art in its color, its form and the graphic popular appeal that it has. That Lisa has worked with Leo, [that ‘Buckyball’] is a public artwork, [the talk is] at Crystal Bridges — it’s just for me a great symbolic piece of our coming together.”
“You kind of see what happens when you have a variety of disciplines percolating around a person and the things they create. But you’re also going to see what happens when two creative minds begin to speak to each other and what happens when you develop a good relationship with another artist or creative mind, how that can influence your own artwork.”
— Sara Segerlin, Crystal Bridges’ manager of public programs