Things to see and do: August and September 2015

LAST CHANCE TO SEE SONIA DELAUNAY AT TATE MODERN ENDS 9th AUGUST
Sonia Delaunay at Tate Modern

Drop everything and get down to the Tate. No, now! It’s the last chance to see Sonia Delaunay which finishes on 9th August. The great thing about major exhibitions like this is they really express the range of an artist’s output. So whatever you think you know about Delaunay, be prepared to go slack-jawed at the ‘simultanist’ geometric paintings, textile creations, graphic designs and costume sketches. The room of fashion and textiles can’t be missed, there’s so much to take in, including a moving textile wall and a pair of embroidered shoes that could have stepped straight out of a Prada collection (in truth, the whole thing is very Prada SS11). Read more HERE.


BARBARA HEPWORTH AT TATE BRITAIN – UNTIL 25th OCTOBER

Barbara Hepworth Tate Britain

Another great Tate production – this one’s at Tate Britain – Barbara Hepworth Sculpture for a Modern World looks at one of the leading sculptors of the 20th Century. On display are her smaller early wood and stone carvings (grouped alongside the work of her contemporaries to show the similarities in their smooth, organic forms), which get gradually more majestic until we arrive at her large-scale outdoor bronzes. As well as the sculptures, there’s a focus on how Hepworth promoted her work, via the media and her own carefully-control marketing and photography. Read more HERE.


LOUIS VUITTON’S SERIES 3 INTERACTIVE EXHIBITION COMES TO LONDON

louis vuitton Series 3 Exhibition London

How we shop is changing drastically and LVMH is tapping into our experiential digital desires with a very millennial exhibition. Louis Vuitton Series 3 (21st Sepember – 18th October 2015) is designed to give London visitors something of the catwalk behind-the-scenes experience with its multi-channel access to the aw15 collection. There will be 13 rooms at the heart of which will be a video display of the show on lifesize screens, according to The Business of Fashion. And of course visitors will be encouraged to Insta/Tweet/Snapchat/WhatsApp to their heart’s content. Vuitton chief executive Michael Burke is quite upfront as to the point of all this. It’s not just about heritage appreciation, it’s about creating desire for product. And in a way it preempts the imminent Instagram ‘buy’ button. For those millennials and post-millennials who don’t go to physical stores, seeing the product disseminated through an Insta lens, might  – in the future – prompt them to buy.


RAF SIMONS RETROSPECTIVE – UNTIL AUGUST 21ST

Raf Simons exhibition in Berlin until August 21 2015

Don’t wet yourself but there’s a Raf Simons exhibition on right now in Berlin. Curated by Willy Vanderperre in collaboration with 032c, it celebrates 20 years of Raf’s work, including Jil Sander and Dior. Of course, it’s all nicely multi-media, with a big emphasis on music, youth culture and – naturally – Vanderperre’s photography. Read more HERE.

WORDS: Navaz Batliwalla/Disneyrollergirl
IMAGES: Disneyrollergirl, RCA, Louis Vuitton, Hypebeast