“Sr Jeanne Wavy Boots w. Gazanias and Snails”: Wall-to-Wall ANTHEA HAMILTON for LOEWE Women SS21

For its spring 2021 menswear rollout back in July, LOEWE conceived of a runway-free collection presentation that allowed viewers to unpack a SHOW IN A BOX. Creative director JONATHAN ANDERSON’s innovative answer to Covid-19 constraints, the experience involved a kind of remote fashion week care package – an interactive moodboard complete with do-it-yourself paper maquettes, a pattern corresponding to a look from the season, and a vinyl record for viewers to play while crafting – accompanied by 24 hours of live streams showcasing Loewe’s vast and multidisciplinary network of creatives. Anderson’s womenswear runway also arrived in a box this week, but its contents expand on the already immersive parcel-meets-programming concept. In fact, they may soon take over the 032c editorial office’s decor. Inside Loewe’s SHOW ON THE WALL: a traditional green Annonay cardboard portfolio full of exquisitely screen-printed lookbook posters, seemingly fresh off the press; a catalogue raisonné of the collection, underscoring the presentation’s exhibition concept; a musical score for a Renaissance motet by Thomas Tallis, newly arranged for an astonishing 40-part chorus; and brand insignia scissors, a bag of powdered glue, a canvas bag and wide brush – supplies, it is revealed after further unpacking, for mounting a three-meter long wallpaper centerpiece designed by artist Anthea Hamilton.

While we work on getting Hamilton’s work, titled Sr Jeanne Wavy Boots w. Gazanias and Snails (2020), on the wall, Loewe fans can tune into video content including an in-conversation between Anderson and model Kaia Gerber, a performance of the Tallis piece – arranged by “show in a box” collaborator Kindness and featuring the voices of Robyn, Hanna Benn, Mathis Picard, and Vuyo Sotashe – and Akimbo Stylee, a documentary on Hamilton’s work directed by Ayo Akingbade, now streaming below and on Loewe’s Instagram and YouTube.

London-based Hamilton is known for large-scale installation and a surrealist capacity for combining eroticism, humor, and criticism. She was one of four artists shortlisted for the 2016 Turner Prize, for which she presented Project for Door: an 18-foot tall sculpture of hands gripping a pair of bare buttocks, inspired by an unrealized design proposed by Italian architect Gaetano Pesce in the 1970s for the entryway to a Manhattan office building. In Akimbo Stylee, Hamilton speaks to BBC resident art historian Dr. James Fox from her Stockwell studio, from her residency in Margate, and from Thomas Dane Gallery, introducing her spheres of work, influence, and inspiration around her city. Scroll to see the artist’s wallpaper in action as part of Loewe women’s spring 2021 exhibition.