Iris van Herpen was born in the village of Wamel, near the town of ‘s-Hertogenbosch, the home of renowned Flemish painter Hieronymus Bosch (c.1450–1516). Growing up, she studied Bosch’s fantastical figures that mix alchemy, mysticism and allegory, and she retains the artist’s taste for hybridisation, an incessant questioning of human and animal nature and an interest in fusing both into chimerical beings.
Her spellbinding Snake dress (illustrated), for example, which both envelops and devours the form of the wearer, is inspired by the Greek legend of Medusa — a woman with writhing snakes for hair, whose look could turn people into stone.
Iris van Herpen ‘Snake’ dress 2011
Inspired by the myth of Medusa, van Herpen created the Snake dress in 2011, the year she joined the Chambre Syndicale de la Haute Couture. This garment, now an icon in the designer’s repertoire — worn by Björk performing at Roskilde Festival in Denmark in 2012 — is composed of thousands of black strips of glossy black PVC sewn onto a stretch tulle base. Allowing sinuous shapes to intertwine, this process reveals a sculptural silhouette in which the body is invaded by an entanglement of snakes.
This bronze sculpture by Papi (illustrated), after the sixteenth-century original by Benvenuto Cellini, represents the Greek myth of Perseus — the son of Zeus, the god of the sky and weather — who slays the Gorgon Medusa and rescues Andromeda from a sea monster. In his quest, he is aided by Hermes and Athena, together with the sisters of the Gorgons, who give him winged sandals to fly, the cap of Hades for invisibility, a curved sword, and a bag in which to conceal the decapitated head. As Medusa’s gaze turned all who looked upon her to stone, Perseus guided himself by using a reflective shield and beheaded Medusa as she slept. This myth inspired van Herpen to create her iconic Snake dress, from her 2011 ‘Capriole’ collection.
Van Herpen shares an interest in alchemy with Bosch, first exploring processes of transmutation in her inaugural collection ‘Chemical Crows’ 2008. To create the Alchemic dress (illustrated), she sewed hundreds of golden ribs from umbrellas onto leather straps, suggesting her early ability to see the transformative potential of unconventional materials.
Iris van Herpen ‘Alchemic’ neckpiece and skirt 2008
The Alchemic neckpiece and skirt was inspired by the medieval chemical science of alchemy, whose aim was the transmutation of base metals into gold. This neckpiece constructed from hundreds of golden ribs from umbrellas, has transported an everyday, and arguably overlooked, object into the realm of Haute couture. The ensemble — including the slim skirt made of bands of leather connected by hand-stitched, nylon-coated electrical wires — recalls a suit of armour, specifically a yoroi (samurai suit) (illustrated) worn by the warriors and rulers of feudal-era Japan.
Influenced by Symbolist and Surrealist literature, van Herpen’s designs in ‘Mythology of fear’, the seventh of nine exhibition themes in ‘Iris van Herpen: Sculpting the Senses’ at Brisbane’s Gallery of Modern Art (GOMA) until 7 October 2024, abound with metaphor, and she loves reinterpreting literary representations of transformation.
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DELVE DEEPER: Journey through ‘Iris van Herpen: Sculpting the Senses’
Iris van Herpen ‘Bird’ dress 2013
Explorer of the ethereal and the elusive, van Herpen has taken a particular interest in the anatomy of birds in many of her collections. For the Bird dress (illustrated), from the ‘Wilderness Embodied’ collection 2013, she employs thin sheets of laser cut Dragon Skin™ silicone that are hand-sewn in numerous layers onto an ivory cotton base to suggest a cloak of plumage. Three bird skulls emerge from the abundance of luminous feathers, adorning the dress asymmetrically and adding a mythological dimension to this otherworldly garment.
Iris van Herpen ‘Radiation Invasion’ dress 2009
Worn by Lady Gaga in 2011 to Nevermind nightclub, Sydney, van Herpen’s Radiation Invasion dress (illustrated), from the 2009 collection of the same name, highlights the way the body is constantly invaded by electromagnetic radiation as we go about our daily lives — from microwaves, infrared light, ultraviolet light, visible light to X-rays. The garment also calls attention to the way we are bombarded with endless streams of digital information in our contemporary world. These radiation waves and data transmissions are embodied in the three-dimensional waves that have been hand-stitched onto an eco-leather bodycon dress. Each wave contains a metallic-coated strip that creates ripples of golden reflections, in turn visualising the omnipresence of radiation.
Iris van Herpen ‘Magnetic Moon’ dress 2013
Produced in collaboration with Dutch artist Jólan van der Wiel, van Herpen created the incredible texture of the Magnetic Moon dress (illustrated) using pure iron filings and large magnets. The filings were mixed into resin, and while the substance was still wet, it was applied to a cotton fabric base. Large magnets were then used to ‘sculpt’ the three-dimensional ‘moon’ surface, in a compositional process balancing the contradictory dynamics of control and chance. As the dress was drying, nano pigments in shades of teal, green and lavender were blown onto the surface, creating an iridescent sheen. Van Herpen was inspired by van der Wiel’s practice in which he creates ‘gravity’ design pieces — such as stools and candelabra inspired by natural organic forms — by exerting gravitational forces on plastic that has been infused with magnets.
Iris van Herpen ‘Argiope’ dress 2016
Inspired by the webs woven by Argiope spiders, the Argiope dress (illustrated) was modelled using Maya software to generate increasingly complex shapes. Blending cutting-edge technology and exquisite craftsmanship, the uninterrupted white lace pattern is printed in 3D, then hand sewn onto a base of black silk, giving the impression of a dress entirely contaminated by a complex web. Somewhere between nature and science fiction, this re-imagined spiderweb imprisons the body in an elaborate cocoon.
Watch | Journey through ‘Sculpting the Senses’
Watch | Iris van Herpen in conversation
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One of the most rewarding aspects of translating ‘Iris van Herpen: Sculpting the Senses’ for a Brisbane context and audience was the opportunity to bring van Herpen’s extraordinary designs into conversation with artworks from the QAGOMA collection. These staged pairings enabled us to expand upon the original curatorial premise of the Paris exhibition, opening up new dialogues and thematic connections, while also imbuing the exhibition with a unique resonance for Australian visitors. It felt faithful to the spirit of van Herpen’s expanded view of fashion, in which she connects the practice organically with many other fields of enquiry, and at the same time, offered us some curatorial scope to re-imagine the exhibition in ways that were both site-specific and meaningful for Brisbane.
Guided by the nine chapters of the exhibition, we compiled a shortlist of artworks that we thought shared visual, formal, conceptual or thematic synergies with van Herpen’s work. We had conversations over many months about artists with whom van Herpen shared a natural affinity, or took inspiration from — some she knew personally or had collaborated with previously, others were a new discovery. Their inclusion in the exhibition speaks to her openness and responsiveness to new ideas and ways of looking at the world, her innate curiosity and her essentially collaborative approach to her work.
Let us introduce you to our Collection artworks in ‘Iris van Herpen: Sculpting the Senses’ at Brisbane’s Gallery of Modern Art (GOMA) until 7 October 2024, and also highlight some of the contemporary works on loan that you will only see during the exhibition.
QAGOMA Collection
Dale Chihuly
Inspired by his experience exploring underwater worlds, Dale Chihuly’s glass form Seaform Macchia group #85.84.7 (illustrated) echoes the unfurling form of a clam. The Italian term ‘macchia’ of the title refers to densely growing flora, and is adopted by the artist to describe the fine undulations typical of the molluscs, corals and other marine invertebrates that he conjures in seven pieces of glass.
The semi-translucent beauty of this sculpture resonates with the qualities of the ocean, where light is captured, refracted and transmitted endlessly, responding to the infinitely variable climatic conditions of the marine environment. In this respect, it shares synergies with van Herpen’s marine-inspired designs: the Mano-Maya dress, from the ‘Meta Morphism’ collection 2022 and Sensory Seas dress, from the ‘Sensory Seas’ collection 2020 (illustrated).
Anne Noble
Essential to the life cycle of flowers and the agricultural systems that sustain human life, the humble bee is at once mighty and fragile. Anne Noble’s Dead Bee Portraits (illustrated) use microscopic photography to create ghostly images of deceased bees, in which even the finest hair on the insect’s body is delineated. To be visible to the electronic beam, the bees were dusted in gold, revealing battered wings and antennae under the enormous magnification. Van Herpen is similarly captivated by the microscopic details of nature’s design and she frequently draws inspiration from them in her biomimetic garments.
Cai Guo-Qiang
Cai Guo-Qiang’s Explosion Process Drawing for Dragon or Rainbow Serpent: A Myth Glorified or Feared: Project for Extraterrestrials No. 28 (Illustrated) is made from detonating gunpowder on paper in ways that leave a residue of scorch marks. Having worked with the forces of gravity and magnetism in some of her designs, van Herpen shares Cai’s commitment to experimenting with unpredictable media, appreciating that the universe holds the forces of creation and destruction in a constant state of flux.
Inspired by commonalities between the stories of the Rainbow Serpent from the Dreamtime and the mythology of the Chinese Dragon, the drawing recalls the calligraphic form of traditional Chinese ink painting, which delicately balances the contradictory tensions of control and spontaneity.
Sopheap Pich
Sopheap Pich’s Buddha (illustrated) hovers between figuration and abstraction. It is difficult to discern if this ghostlike figure is coming into existence or unravelling in a suspended state of entropy. Meticulously crafted from rattan and bamboo, Pich’s Buddha combines traditional weaving techniques with the visual language of contemporary sculpture. In marrying the old with the new, and the past with the present, it finds parallels with van Herpen’s approach which brings age-old artisanal craftsmanship together with a distinctly futuristic aesthetic.
Yayoi Kusama
Taking inspiration from rippling waves viewed from above while on a flight from Tokyo to Seattle, Yayoi Kusama began her ‘Infinity nets’ series in the late 1950s, this example Infinity nets (illustrated) is from later in her career.
Kusama’s Infinity nets painting comprises tiny crescent shapes repeated in ever-expanding arches on a white monochromatic ground. The undulating surface conveys the sensation of the hallucinations — perceived as a veil of dots — that the artist has experienced since she was a child. Van Herpen has long been interested in how neurological conditions affect our perception of the world, often playing with optical illusions and distortions of form in her work.
Kohei Nawa
Kohei Nawa’s works fuse the natural and virtual realms through exquisite studies in form and perception. In PixCell-Double Deer #4 (illustrated), two taxidermied deer in identical poses have been sliced together to produce an optical doubling, which the artist likens to the effect produced when holding ‘Ctrl+C’ on a keyboard. The outer surface of transparent beads approximates the thousands of pixels that make up digital images, as Nawa attempts to recreate the visual experience of the computer screen in sculptural form.
The beaded silhouettes of the deer become unstable and dynamic as the viewer moves around the sculpture, suggesting a disjunction between visual perception and bodily experience in the internet age. Nawa’s work was known to van Herpen, who admired the Japanese artist’s almost dreamlike explorations into the elasticity of perception.
Doris Platt
In the 1970s, Doris Platt and her husband were cattle-musterers at Marina Plains cattle station, south of Coen in Cape York Peninsula, where goannas were found in abundance. Goanna skin (illustrated), which is based on Indigenous sand-drawings, builds around striated bands that...
