initial ideas

This project called '+1', '1' equals an object. I am going to create an object in relation to my own interests and interpretations of one collection in V&A museum.

 

Unfortunately, I am not be able to view those precious collections in person because of self isolation. After struggling with the various collections in V&A's online museum, I chose Costume at last.

 

The cover of Costume collection reminds me of my favourite artist, Leslie Cheung, who once wore similar red high heels at a 1997 concert.

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"Cheung first came to international attention with his portrayal of the androgynous Peking Opera star, for the film Farewell My Concubine, which won the Palme d'Or at Cannes in 1993. " (BBC NEWS 'Leslie Cheung: Asia's gay icon lives on 15years after his death' 08 April 2018) At stage, Leslie unleashed a sexually fluid charm by his defining queer performance in his late career. As a male Asian icon, he bravely challenged the gender boundary under conservative Asian culture's bias of sexual minorities.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Thus, it motivates my passion in his costume for concert performance in 2000. The concert is called ' Passion Tour '. In Bible, it is also used as the journey of Jesus' suffering before he became God, probably having a resonance in western cultural context. 

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Leslie was honoured to invite Jean Paul Gaultier to design costumes for Passion Tour, a French fashion designer who questioned the traditional definition of men and women. Following Gaultier's design concept: From Angel to Devil, the concert was a new exploration in concert form, presented in the form of stage play. It illustrated an angel who challenged God's will and came to mortal world to become a human, experiencing pain, various emotions and desires; finally create his own values as individual, becoming his own god. 

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Here [Passion Tour concert] we could see Leslie as flirtatious, beautiful, stylish, and arrogant man or woman, as a man who wore a series of crossed-gender outfits. Through his hair was extended, his male muscular body, voice, and even moustache, it shows femininity within a male body. He was not pretending to be a woman. At the time he said, ‘I am not pretending to be a woman. I am using my male identity to express that clothing can be like this.’”

 

─Lok Fung, ‘Leslie Cheung’s Stage Arts’,

excerpt from In Reminiscence of Leslie’s Artistic Life Conference Series (2), 2003

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