Artist Lecture Series: threeASFOUR

threeASFOUR at the Fashion Biennale, Arnhem Mode Biennale, 2011

There’s an Artist Lecture Series that’s a mandatory component of my Contemporary Art program at Sotheby’s. Yesterday evening was the first of five. The fashion designers/artist trio and collaborators that comprise the avant-garde fashion label threeASFOUR, came to talk about their line and their collaborative works. Gabi Asfour, Angela Donhauser and Adi Gil are from Lebanon, Tajikistan and Israel, respectively. The group has collaborated with Yoko Ono, Matthew Richie, Matthew Barney and Björk, among others. On Sunday, Lady Gaga attended their SS ’14 show for Fashion Week at the Jewish Museum of New York (where threeASFOUR will have an exhibition of their work September 15, 2013-February 2, 2014). She was reportedly interested in a collaboration with the label. Adi Gil used designed Kate Spade’s collection in 2007 and still works with Kate and Andy Spade. The group has also exhibited at the world’s only Fashion Biennale in Holland in 2011, where their theme was humanity’s alienation from the universe and a red dress was exhibited (pictured above) in order to represent organ tissue and human suffering.

threeASFOUR Designers at NY Fashion Week, SS ’14

What’s even more impressive that their resume and their long list of collaborations is their impetus for creating art and working in fashion (and the cross that arises from their convergence). “Nobody needs another dress, ” said Donhauser. “The message behind it needs to touch something else.” threeASFOUR uses their fashion line and their art installations to promote peace in the Middle Eastern region and to emphasize the common ties that the combative groups there share. In a video piece they produced titled “Shesh Besh,” (posted below) the ancient board game, with the same name, is used as a unifying “matchmaker” facilitating harmony between Jewish and Arab cultures. The team draws its primary inspiration from geometric shapes and the hypercube (notably, the origin of the Star of David), which is the central focus of many of their patterns. They group also noted that some of their other inspirations include origami and crop circles. The piece (pictured below) from their SS ’14 line is a fractal design that was 3D printed.

The group also noted during a Q&A session that commercial and compromise don’t have to be synonymous–the label was recently rejected from Target for the production of a lower-end line. Despite reluctance to work with Lady Gaga, they remain open to collaborations for the purposes of gaining exposure–but the trio also assured that they would not “sell out.”

threeASFOUR SS ’14 3D printed fractal design

“It’s not enough to be an artist–you must also be a business man in fashion,” offered Asfour.

“Life is our school,” said Donhauser after she was asked about their formal education and noted that both she and Gil dropped out of a fashion program in Germany. “You have to be a curious person, the rest is always history.”