There are fewer and fewer people who want to have a narrow understanding of "trend art"

Author: Fish who listen to music 24 hours a day.

I believe everyone will not object to the proposition that "the relationship between fashion and art is inseparable now". When a fashion brand is stained with artistic flavor, it can become an explosive topic news for a period of time.

But on second thought, when the trend art is hot and rising, how many people can really understand it?

Supreme X Mike Kelly (Photo: Idol Magazine)

Is it a "punch card" to take photos at the exhibition of trend artists and send friends to say that you like this artist for a long time?

Will you buy a work that you think is cool at a high price without knowing anything about the trend artists? Or put on a posture of "everyone is drunk and I wake up alone" and sneer at the graffiti-like stick figures in your eyes?

(Photo: ubies.net)

For "trend art", it is true that most people are still squinting. To this end, the Steppy task force came to ComplexCon, a trend exhibition recently opened in California, USA, and had a "passionate collision" (exclusive interview) with artist Steven Harrington ~

Fish will take you to make up for Mr. Steven's deeds first. If I had to describe him in one sentence, I would first say that he is "a man with KITH in one hand and Nike in the other". Just last year, they came to a wave of tripartite joint names.

(Photo: stevenharrington.com)

In addition, Nike is also a good friend of Steven, and the two will "do something" from time to time.

Steven Harrington x Nike air Jordan 1 displayed in Steven's studio.

(Photo: stevenharrington.com)

There are also familiar Colette, Converse, Nixon, IKEA, Crocodile, Coca-Cola and so on. Under the colorful and lovely cartoon image of Steven, dozens of brands show a more lively side.

Steven has made murals for Colette, held exhibitions in Colette, and launched joint products with Colette. The last two pictures are candles and mugs jointly launched by both parties, which are still displayed in Steven's studio (image: stevenharrington.com).

(Photo: stevenharrington.com)

Nixon x Steven Harrington watch displayed by Steven Studio.

The IKEA X Steven Harrington tray displayed by Steven Studio.

Steven shared some of his stories about people's narrow understanding of "trend art", and at the same time let us know more about the real thoughts of trend artists and how we should understand "trend art".

Fashion artists will only co-sign with fashion and street brands?

Artists take "trend" as the prefix, and people naturally take it for granted that "Oh, he only touches street trends", but after Steven became a "trend artist", he chose to cooperate with the home furnishing giant IKEA to launch a series of home products.

People are often limited by the word "trend", but ignore the essence of "art". In fact, art permeates our lives, which can be reflected in eating, drinking and wearing, not only in the creation of clothes and shoes, but also in the joint name of fashion brands.

IKEA x Steven Harrington Carpets (Photo: stevenharrington.com)

Fashion artists can do it as long as their works are cool enough?

The value of a work of art does not necessarily lie in its visual effect or material, but in the concept it wants to express. For Steven, the best moment is that a person who doesn't necessarily know so much about art can stand in front of his works and try to seriously think about his creative ideas, and then he can study who he is and his other works.

Contemporary young people often lack the ability to think and explore actively. Instead of simply thinking "cool" or relying on lengthy explanations to understand something, why not take the initiative to turn the "period" in your mind into a "question mark" and then break it one by one? You can get more than you think.

Trend artists can create at will under the banner of "art"

"Art is lonely", the ancestors can naturally feel this, because as an artist, it is not easy for others to understand your thoughts. Behind those paintings that are ridiculed as "incomprehensible" and "too simple", there are often hidden meanings that artists are most eager to tell you, but they don't want to be too straightforward. This is ... the legendary Jiao Jiao? )

Steven's paintings represent that many bad things from outside are entering the United States (inside the window). These things were once blocked, but now we can't get rid of them.

In the works of most "trend artists", they not only have visual effects, but also contain stories that artists want to convey. In Steven's paintings, he prefers to think about serious problems with a relaxed and positive attitude. Almost every work "really has a story".

Steven's second sculpture wrapped around his dog with palm trees representing life, and named this work "Gotcha" vividly, which is very in line with this artistic conception bound by life.

Fashion artists began to simply "circle money" after their success?

I heard that when a person/brand becomes popular, you can make a lot of money by submitting the brand Logo.png when co-signing. Over time, everyone's enthusiasm for this joint way will also decrease.

In other words, maintaining creative independence is extremely important for trend artists. When IKEA wanted to cooperate with Steven to launch more co-branded products, Steven refused.

There are two completely different paths in artistic creation, one is to follow the crowd and the other is to be yourself. Trend artists may not only make "explosive" works of art that cater to fashion trends, but also find their soul mates while maintaining their creative independence.

Trendy artists only create, but have no goals?

Although most trend artists are active in their personal capacity, it doesn't mean that they are working hard again and again, and they will also look for self-breakthrough. Take Steven as an example, he is trying to make a bigger sculpture, which is confirmed by the artistic installation he showed for Changsha IFS.

Steven's "Catch You" exhibition in Changsha (source: ICON magazine).

Because the size of each sculpture is different, the proportion of the sculpture is also different. This feeling can be intuitively reflected to everyone, so it needs to be constantly created.

In fact, trend artists are not simply creating, they have been breaking through their comfort zones and pushing trend art to a new height.

After talking with Steven, we certainly can't miss his latest carpooling plan -AAPE X Steven Harrington, which was announced on ComplexCon that day. Then let the Steppy task force take you to explore the road ~

When we arrived at the scene, we saw a circle of camouflage chandeliers hanging at the top of AAPE's booth. It is reported that the booth design is inspired by alien flying saucers, and the booth and LED TV are arranged in the feeling of time machine, full of futuristic feeling ~

A group of fans have been waiting for Steven to appear here. Everyone not only got the special edition sticker of this cooperation, but also enjoyed a special hamburger.

Throughout the interview that day, Steven talked to us very friendly and naturally. Unexpectedly, he doesn't have the "pride" of an artist on the crowded ComplexCon. He has been very enthusiastic and active in interacting with everyone, chatting with them actively and signing autographs for everyone at the scene!

In addition to Steven's appearance, AAPE also prepared a special session for everyone-providing DIY service on site, so that fans can enjoy DIY fun.

For example, on the booth, we saw NBA star nick young, creative director and colette founder Sarah Anderman, and Japanese sneaker brand atmos founder Hidefumi Hommyo. They all showed their love for this joint project.

During this trip, we saw several products in this joint project for the first time, such as short-sleeved T-shirts and hooded pullovers, all of which reinterpreted the AAPE brand logo with Steven's iconic palm tree (named "Hello Mello").

In addition to clothing, there are two sculptures, which are about 10 cm and 30 cm high respectively. It is said that singers Pusha T and Trinidad James also got this sculpture at the scene ~

(photo: ins@s_harrington)

As for the design of this toy, it can be seen that Steven put AAPE's brand-new iconic image "Appel" on Hello Mello, and the banana that Appel left on the ground seems to mean something.

Maybe Steven wants to send us some information with this toy again? Why don't you guess? By the way, isn't it the coolest thing to get what the artist really wants to express?

Tips: These design elements all represent something/something respectively ~

In this era when people's basic living needs have been met, people begin to explore the spiritual level to meet their pleasant and beautiful psychological expectations, and cultural art consumption is exactly the fashionable lifestyle that most people want to pursue.

At the same time, because the height of art was once beyond the reach of ordinary people, when its foothold became lower, everyone rushed to share a piece of it, and naturally it was easy to have a very superficial and narrow understanding of it.

But when you can really calm down your impetuous heart, spend less time thinking about "what to eat today" and spend more time thinking and exploring, "trend art" may not be as superficial as you think, and "trend artist" may not be as eager for quick success as you think.

If you love a culture, you don't want it to be polluted by dust. As for me, I hope fewer and fewer people have a narrow understanding of "trend art"

(Photo: stevenharrington.com)