Exhibits,

Ricarda Bigolin, Nella Themelios, Simon Browne Dolci & Kabana: Brand Delusions

Opening: Tuesday 18 September, 6-8pm Dates: 18 September – 6 October 2012

‘Dolci & Kabana: Brand Delusions’ is the inaugural public outing of the newly constituted collaborative entity Dolci & Kabana: a fashion brand in search of an identity. The fashion persona and the fashion brand are increasingly and more intricately conflated in current market cultures. The lack of distinction between a person, brand, company, design house and corporation reveals the increased over-capitalisation of fashion, and the way a persona can be represented in a variety of different formats: a typographic identity, a glossy advertorial, a black & white bio pic, or a twitter feed. ‘Dolci & Kabana: Brand Delusions’ wilfully exploits the ambiguity proffered in the entity of a ‘brand’, using the exhibition framework as just one more in a series of branding statements and allusions. Subsequently the edges between work, branding, art, life style and PR are deliberately made ambiguous.

Screening as part of the project is Bernadette Corporation’s ‘fashion film’ Hell Frozen Over. The film references the 19th century poet Stéphane Mallarmé, who notably produced a fictional fashion magazine La Dernière Mode under a variety of pseudonyms. The project also includes a live link to the twitter feed of Choupette – Karl Lagerfeld’s cat, a launch night and a number of associated events. The project indulges the limits and formats of a corporate identity, embracing the smoke and mirrors, chiaroscuro and surfaces that veil the blankness and impermanence of corporate strategy and the multiple formats of a brand name.

Dolci & Kabana, (a banal word play of) a famous Italian fashion brand, big business, deli, catering, cake and sausage. Directed by Ricarda Bigolin & Nella Themelios, Dolci & Kabana operates amorphously between the fields of art, design, and fashion, subsuming the enterprise within the aspirations of a fashion business. The collective intends to produce and direct a variety of projects including ‘artworks’, fashion items, events and spaces.

EVENTS:

The Vernissage (Preview):
Tuesday 18 September, 6-8pm
Are you the new face of Dolci & Kabana? We’re looking for you and what you might be for us. An invitation to screen test for Dolci & Kabana. This is a preview of what we could be together and we’re hoping you’re great.

The Launch:
Saturday 6 October, 3-5pm
Come celebrate the face that launches a brand, and various other launches of fashion, things, people and conversations. Cake and sausage will be served.