All of this and more are on display in "Young Chicago," the wildly eclectic (and in some cases oddly chosen) new show at the Art Institute of Chicago that highlights the city's top young talent in graphic and product design, architecture and fashion.

Organized by Joseph Rosa, the Art Institute's curator of architecture and design, the show sets out to bring attention to young designers in creative fields outside architecture, which has traditionally hogged the limelight. It's a worthy goal, but either Rosa hasn't done enough homework or he's conceding that Chicago's non-architectural design community isn't as deep as he may have thought.

The two fashion designers represented, Nick Cave and Cat Chow, are original thinkers who treat the medium as a springboard into artistic investigations that go well beyond couture; neither of their works here is truly meant to be worn. Cave's "soundsuit," a towering spangly number with a shovel-headed top that seems to refer to the Ku Klux Klan's infamous hoods, is bravura artmaking, but is it fashion as we commonly understand the term? Ditto for Chow's "Hourglass," a witty riff on a classic party dress that gives new meaning to the phrase "tiny waist."

Source: http://www.msn.com
POSTED BY KEVIN NANCE


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