The Bauhaus movement has always inspired the codes of La Prairie through its philosophy and the diverse disciplines that characterise it. Although the movement was progressive in its artistic expression and educational paradigm, the women of the Bauhaus were too often overshadowed by their male colleagues. Despite these obstacles, women excelled at the Bauhaus. As a tribute to their spirit, legacy and diverse disciplines, La Prairie has created its own Women Bauhaus Collective, five young talents mentored by award-winning designer Sabine Marcelis, to reinterpret their individual creative pursuit of harmony. Paying homage to the female figures of the Bauhaus by exploring their mastery of harmony, the works reflect each of the talent’s personal responses to the theme in an expansive range of media. The project will be unveiled in a unique virtual exhibition hosted on laprairie.com. Prior to the virtual exhibition, the project will be presented in an exclusive scenography designed by Marcelis during Art Basel in Basel 2022. True to the Bauhaus concept of the “Gesamtkunstwerk”, or “total work”, in coming together these different artworks together form a cohesive and balanced whole, a sum greater than its parts.

The Women Collective

Kristin Chan, Gloria Fan Duan, Lauren Januhowski, Jasmine Deporta and Talia Golchin, from Hong Kong’s Design Institute, The School of Design Institute in Chicago, Ecole des Arts Décoratifs in Paris, Switzerland’s ECAL, and Central Saint Martins in London – were selected by La Prairie to form the Collective.  Mentored by Sabine Marcelis – a close collaborator of the House whose own designs, using smart, sustainable materials, have been irrevocably shaped by Bauhaus – each talent brings a diverse artistic and cultural background. The award-winning designer guided the group through their creative process to reinterpret their own pursuit of harmony, a notion so central of the School of Bauhaus.

ART PIECES

ART PIECE 1: MAGNIFY 

Kristin Chan created a transformative, perspective-bending 3D architectural world. In her work, she used selected proportions and colours inspired by the Bauhaus to express the concept of harmony, which is a result of numerous experimentations.  The experimental value of colour palette and tactility are paramount to complete spatial integrity. She made use of the sense of Bauhaus and the nature of Harmony in order to interpret the adaptation from the segments and the colours. Colour has a significant impact on people’s feelings. The perception of harmony might shift depending on the object’s scale. The scale of the space, the proportion of an item, and the pure colour scheme are critical in portraying harmony. She wanted to provoke dialogue about what is our individual dimension of harmony through the combination of portion and colour.

ART PIECE 2: WISHBONE 

Gloria Fan Duan realised an innovative digital animation piece inspired by Bauhaus textile design using advanced computer and digital technologies. The work entangles multiple strands of hope and harmony by overlapping their shared aesthetics of abstraction from Bauhaus’ formalism, with Zen’s formalism, as well as linking textile with computer-aided design. Anni Albers’ knot paintings inform the way she redresses traditionally masculine and feminine media. She tempers the traditionally feminine Asian craft subject of wish knots, textiles, and computing with masculine subjects of Zen and sculpture.  

ART PIECE 3: COLONNADE OF CRAFT

Lauren Januhowski created a fabric paravent, inspired by the women weavers of Bauhaus, using a mix of monotype printing and sewing techniques to create and assemble her fabric. In her work, her process is meticulously detailed and tied to the history of her family’s sewing practices; she mixes inks, prints each piece of fabric, hand-cuts letters, and embroiders small details onto each piece. Throughout the stories told in her works, Lauren utilises the voices of female characters that she composes based on personal events, facets of her personality, compilations from discussions with the women in her life, and overheard conversations. With her projects, Lauren Januhowski wishes to propose a complex and multifaceted image of the woman, like a patchwork quilt, while actively challenging the emotional and societal complications that we face together as women. Harmony is expressed in her work through the representation of a harmonious and collaborative relationship between women, directly referencing not only the inspirational collaboration between the women in the Bauhaus weaving workshop, but equally accrediting the own bond of collaboration that The Women Bauhaus Collective, have created during this unique, inspirational project.

ART PIECE 4: OUT OF THE BLUE

Jasmine Deporta developed a surreal photographic sculpture inspired by the female body. Her work echos her surroundings and relationships and is a personal reflection on longing and identity. Working in the now, along with leaving space for coincidence and being intuitive is part of her workflow. With a fascination for materiality in her installations images become haptic and multidimensional. She merges performative gestures, intimate encounters, and everyday symbolism into new scenarios.  Her art was amongst others inspired by the ‘Theory of harmony’ by Gertrud Grunow and her exploration of the harmonious use of all the senses. In contrast to the rational, geometric form-language, she partook the body and sense-centered approach, which inspired the nearly ethereal, floating figure in her work.

ART PIECE 5: EUPHORIA

Talia Golchin presents a captivating digital sculpture inspired by synergy between the mind, the body and the universe.  In this context her work focuses on harmony which is expressed as the flow of energy through movement, combined with stillness and connectivity expressed through the female form. Abstraction of the female body as smooth interlocking circles and spheres synchronised with the flow of energy, highlights the life force and its connection between the natural surroundings with macro elements of the body, and its constituent parts ‘the cell’.  The female form is the creator, and the cells are the foundation of the life force. Using this concept Talia creates a sense of oneness and connectivity that is explored through her own interpretation of harmony. Her work is influenced by Bauhaus through simplicity of form and colour, with euphoric yellows and oranges juxtaposed to calmer blues providing harmony and fluidity in the art that celebrates La Prairie’s connection to nature.