Why artists? Why sunglasses? Because they’re both in the business of generating aura; because they show life at one remove; because they come in four principle varieties – holiday, hangover, avant-garde, post-operative; because they’re post-Warholian; because they’re witty, obnoxious, distracting, inappropriate, displaced, evocative; any reason, in fact, other than some lame joke about frames, ok? What kind of art even COMES in a frame these days? Jeez…
Certainly not that of Alex Israel. Israel’s omnipresent sunglasses are the site of power for his cipherlike interview persona in his As It Lays (2012) series in which he sits straitfacedly opposite LA constellations such as Marilyn Manson and Melanie Griffith as they muse, respectively, on building a ‘Cum-fort’ Inn out of their own seminal fluid and crying over Matisse. The airbrushed cinema flats procured by Israel for his exhibitions have the counterpoint in the artist’s giant lens-shaped works – filters through which to view the Hollywood landscape perfected, as the conventions of fantasy dictate.
Israel’s commitment to viewing the world through a glass darkly extends to his own eyewear range – Freeway – which, while emphatically NOT AN ART PROJECT (got that?) does also feature annual tie-ins with local artworld luminaries John Baldessari (obligatory), Barbara Kruger and Raymond Pettibon. The arms of the 2015 Pettibon frames are inscribed with the poignant line from his 1989 serigraph ‘I Thought California Would Be Different’ and are available for $200 through ForYourArt – an LA initiative that supports the city’s artists and cultural institutions.
Raymond Pettibon L.A. Rays Sunglasses by Freeway Eyewear and ForYourArt
Israel’s Freeway frames are the stuff of posing and character play: vanilla props for an army of LA characters. For less benign eyewear, Marjan Pejoski’s high-concept London fashion label Kokon To Zai has collaborated with sunglasses brand Linda Farrow to produce an ominous, sculptural masklike structure that is part scifi ski goggles and part batula. The ultimate facecovering for the incognito celebrity, perhaps, but not one that would allow you to pass unnoticed.
Kokon to Zai for Linda Farrow, KTZ 9 (Collapsible Geometric Mask), £180
Damir Doma’s layered, gender-ambiguous and lushly textured fashion collections seem destined for contemporary nomads – and perhaps with sympathy for those who will be squinting sagely into the sun, he has created shades with a distinct opthalmic quality. A floating metal clip melded onto larger medical-looking frames, they evoke hints of Clockwork Orange as well as 1980s flip-up frames.
Damir Doma for Mykita, Bradfield frames, £475
That the performance art-inclined fashion duo Bernhard Willhelm and Jutta Kraus have recently moved from Paris to LA is another incremental shift in the cultural barometer from the uptight creative capitals of Europe to freethinking California, though Willhelm does confess that he missed ‘the kinky side of Europe’. He also admits to sometimes regretting the eternal sunshine of his new home turf, but adds that it seems rude to complain. He has a long-running relationship with German sunnies brand Mykita (who also produce Doma’s shades), and each season puts out, among other things, an industrial visor sunshades with a different tone of metallic sheen – perfect for those escaping the glare of the workshop and the outdoor world. It’s not often that fashion designers – even the most avant-garde – are called on to perform spot welding. But as the counterpart to his quasi-industrial jumpsuits, wrestlers’ unitards, outsized zippers and motorcross boots, the industrial visor is as much an object of fetish fantasy for Willhelm as classic Hollywood frames are for Israel.
Bernhard Willhelm for Mykita, Daisuké sun visor: £459 (check out the moving models on this website!)
They may not require spot welding, but there’s certainly hands-on milling involved in Homes Eyewear’s reclaimed wooden frames. Launched a couple of years ago by Achille Bianchi, an affiliate of the OmniCorpDetroit hackerspace/creative collective, Homes’s frames are made from hardwood taken from Detroit’s demolished buildings. A former copy editor Bianchi taught himself every step of the process to produce sunglasses from scratch, from finding the right wood up through hand manufacturing and designing the frames: “everything you see with Homes is something I’ve created” he explains, adding that it feels like he’s put himself through his own sunglasses-centric MA course. Homes has what they call in the bizz a ‘triple bottom line’ of positive social, financial and environmental impacts; “I’m just trying to make a good product without a negative impact on those around me.”
Homes Eyewear, Sturtevant in reclaimed wood, $228
One-time Star Wars / Matrix series production designer Miles Pitt transformed his love of sci-fi model making into a sunglasses label that wears its sculptural credentials right up front in the name – Cast – and the shapes, which are wiiiiild!. Designed and made in Australia – a reminder that California does not have a monopoly on either the sun or the movie industry – each model is made in an edition of 100. The names are nearly as good as the frames – how can you not want a pair of sunglasses called ‘Disco Stepchild’?
Cast Eyewear, Disco Stepchild, in Granite, $100
Find more Wanted! columns here
Online exclusive published 30 July 2015
