Maria Sheila Miani lives with the history of fashion in
Milan. She studied to be a fashion editor in both Europe and the US, has had
articles published in Vogue.it and Vogue Italia magazine, and works for Italian
blogger and fashion designer Chiara Ferragni. Maria also comments on her
perception of fashion and the industry through her own art projects.
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| Maria's "But first let me take a selfie" |
“As soon as I came back from LA, I decided I wanted to reach
an audience of people who share my interest for fashion. People who feel fascinated
by this world, who are inspired but do not necessarily want to be a fashion
designer. Therefore, I began creating personal projects, not just for my own
sake, but to share with others.”
iskm: How would you describe your art practice?
Maria Sheila Miani (MSM): Liberating and personal. Each of
my art projects are born by ideas that I have while walking on a streets,
cooking, reading. From an idea, I try to express something bigger, a feeling or
a perception I have of the world.
MSM: “Is Art in Fashion” is a a series of collages. I select a famous painter (Van Gogh, Picasso,
Salvador Dalì, Manet), select a number of his works and then I pick a fashion
model and I insert her in the various paintings.
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| Kate & "Still life with melon and peaches, 1866" |
iskm: How did it come to start?
MSM: One day I was doing my daily walk in my city, Rome, and
I saw a poster advertising an exhibition of the famous French painter, Henri
Matisse. It showed a table with a bowl of fruit and I thought that it would
look cool if I put a model in the painting – a collage! That is how it started.
iskm: How do you choose the source artist and art?
MSM: First of all I pick an artist. Usually I try to choose
one that interests me in that particular moment, either because I have recently
studied the artist or because I see an exhibition of his work. If I feel more
connected to the artist, I understand better what he wanted to portray and
therefore I can choose which model to insert. I research his style, in which century did he live, to better
understand his background and then select 10-15 of the
artist's works.
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| Kate & "Portrait of Lady Gonzales" |
iskm: And the choice of model? How/why do you choose the
model and the artist to pair?
MSM: I always try to pick a model whose features are completely
in contrast with the kind of people that are in the paintings of the
artist. For instance, for Gauguin’s works, which portrait exotic women from a
very primitive lifestyle in Tahiti, I chose to use Daphne Groenveld as the
model. Her features are completely the opposite of Gauguin’s kind of women. She
is pale, blonde, has huge lips and bambi eyes. In most fashion editorials she
resembles a Barbie doll and wears very expensive clothes. For Vermeer’s
paintings, which are set back in the 17th century when women wore very modest
clothes and behaved in a very reserved manner, I inserted Gisele Bundchen, the
most famous Brazilian model whose lifestyle is all about yoga and sports. She
also has an incredible body that fashion magazines love to photograph in
swimsuits and short dresses.
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| Kate & "The Absinthe Drinker" |
iskm: How do you do then create the collage?
MSM: I open every painting in Photoshop and begin inserting
various pictures of the model, each from a different editorial. I usually
insert 3 to 5 images, the ones where the model seems to be interacting with the
painting, before I find the one that best suits.
iskm: What was the initial pairing? How long before you came
to use kate?
MSM: The project began with Lily McMenamy and Matisse then
moved to Kate Moss as soon as I finished the first series. When I began the
project I was living in Rome, and I would be working in my sitting room, where
we keep the television. I would see Kate Moss daily, during tv spots.
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| Kate & "Parisienne study of Ellen Andree 1874" |
iskm: Why kate with Manet?
MSM: Kate Moss and Manet together are invincible. They are both considered “rebels”.Manet is
the father of Impressionism, one of the most important art movements that
completely changed the perception of art and its relationship with
reality. Even more, Manet lived in a century when women were obliged by
society to behave, to wear a certain type of clothes and had limited
possibilities. Kate Moss instead is a rebel, a rock and roll woman who would
never follow these rules.
iskm: In your opinion, has kate also “changed the perception
of art and its relationship with reality”?
MSM: I guess you can say that Kate Moss image has been
reproduced so many times that she belongs to a mass media culture. It was
natural that somebody would use her image to transform it, and if this person
is an artist, then to create art. Especially in the digital era, when you can
find tons of images of such a famous person, it is easy to take these pictures
and make them yours. Kate Moss managed to create a universe around her, made of
her lifestyle, personality and career path. People feel drawn to her because
she has made her life memorable. I, as an artist, can see so many different
aspects of her in her pictures that it is almost natural to create something
out of them.
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| Maria's "Love Doesn't Hurt, but Betrayal Does!" |
iskm: One of our favorite pieces from the series is Manet's
“La Muerte del Torero”. Why did you use a kate playboy image for this
collage?
MSM: When I chose Kate Moss from Playboy, l could see a
connection between the dead torero on the floor and her, on the ground too,
with a very intriguing expression. To me, in that collage, she seems worried
but at the same time she has a “killer-gaze”. She just killed her
lover, you betrayed her, and her look seems like she is about to do the same to
you, if you will tell somebody. This is how my imagination works, this is how I create my collages.
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| Kate & Manet's "Nana, 1877" |
iskm: You always reference the source artist as “he”? Have
you ever worked with a female source artist? If not, why not?
MSM: I am using painters that date back to many centuries
ago. I studied the history of art, and until the last century, it is really
hard to think of a famous female artist. To me, it is not only to know the name
of the artist, but I want to know their life and what they wanted to express
through their art.
iskm: And you refer to the models as “her”. What
about male models?
MSM: I won’t wait to use a female painter to insert a male
model. I have not used them yet because the male fashion has become popular
only recently. I can think of many famous male models, but very of them have a
strong image as female models such as Kate Moss, Naomi Campbell or Coco Rocha.
iskm: You have used kate in other series - you had an image
of her within your legolize-fashion series. Can you explain this project?
MSM: My Lego project consists in making a Lego version of
the fashion world. I began by doing magazines covers, because they are so
iconic and recognizable. However I recently began doing fashion campaign too.
Gucci, the fashion brand, contacted me to make me be part of the second series
of #GucciGram. Therefore I lego-lized their Fall 2015 campaign.
iskm: Life imitates art! How do you see the work relating to
the “Is Art in Fashion”?
MSM: Both works are an expression of my imagination. Even
more, it's how I like to relate to the fashion system. I believe it is a very
fun and creative world from the surface but it is actually made of hard work.
Which is the ingredient of my projects.
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| Kate & "Luncheon on the grass" |
iskm: Which photographers/artists would you most want to
most see involved in ishotkatemoss?
MSM: I am in awe of many artists. I think that I would really
like to see how Darcel Dissapoints creates Kate Moss with his style. What I
like about him is that he created this figure, and managed to create and entire
world of real characters.
And just like Manet and Maria, you too can Observe. Slow
Down. Shoot. Submit.
"I wish I could do whatever I liked behind the curtain of “madness”.
Then: I’d arrange flowers, all day long, I’d paint; pain, love and
tenderness, I would laugh as much as I feel like at the stupidity of
others, and they would all say: “Poor thing, she’s crazy!” (Above all I
would laugh at my own stupidity.)" 
Through this exploration, we stumbled upon the work of Jen Allanson,
for whom we sent hungry eyes, as we looked longingly towards a berry dessert.
Upon further exploration, we found that there was a great deal more that met
the eyes, and stomach.
iskm: We also spotted that you also used kate’s eyes on
non-food images, such as the picture of the horse. Was this something you began
exploring beyond the plate?
JA: The new collages have certainly been sparked by my going
back to visit this project at your prompting. So yes, there may be a few more
to come …
