I saw the exhibition of Virgil Abloh [↓] at the Brooklyn Museum twice.



When you walk in, these shoes [↓] sit on a table just to the right, marked as what they are, a work-in-progress, one of many, a "prototype."



There are maybe 20 pairs of unreleased Nike shoes surrounding these, in various states of de- and re-construction, the fruits of an ongoing collaboration between the shoe-maker and Virgil Abloh’s label, Off-White. According the exhibition materials for Virgil Abloh, "Figures of Speech," these works-in-progress are typical of how he thought about design:

as much about the process of asking question and prototyping as it was about the final product.

The rest of the exhibition consists of so many prototypes. The materials are impressively mixed, inherently uneven, and all presented at the same level. This is one thing I really liked about it. It matched the similarly catholic approach to his work.

prototypes are presented alongside the finished works of art, products, and fashion designs to reveal his myriad inspirations — from centuries-old paintings to contemporary signage at construction sites.

Long tables collect the materials. For example, the first includes his high school sketchbook, a brass printing plate for the CD packaging of Watch the Throne (Kanye West and Jay Z), a small video screen showing a fashion shoot at Le Corbusier's Villa Savoye, next to a series of silkscreens used for his Pyrex Vision clothing line, sketches for a character called Jerry Curls, next to jewelry made from paper clips, a custom designed DJ setup, and a Nike tennis dress for Serena Williams. It is a dizzying array of materials and I’m guessing that’s the point. The exhibition design [↑] is by Abloh's studio, Alaska Alaska together with Mahfuz Sultan of Clocks.



Midway down the table, a set of silkscreens [↓] are laid out. One is a painting by Caravaggio (who you’ll remember from the Enzo Mari class), another combines the words ”Pyrex” and “23.” The constellation of references is (typically) mixed: ”Pyrex” refers to the glassware in home drug labs; “23” was the jersey number of basketball star Michael Jordan; and the Caravaggio painting is The Entombment of Christ (1603). 






Continues in class . . .