Nan Fang Tags Cabbeen And China Fashion’s Rolling Philosopher’s Stones

In order to get a better grasp of Wang Jiang’s latest project with Meng Yueming’s brand KSIEZYC, hauntingly entitled “The Hidden Ghost”, the following philosophical notes are a must:

“The culture industry perpetually cheats its consumers of what it perpetually promises. The promissory note which, with its plots and staging, it draws on pleasure is endlessly prolonged; the promise, which is actually all the spectacle consists of, is illusory: all it actually confirms is that the real point will never be reached, that the diner must be satisfied with the menu.” Quote, Max Horkheimer and Theodor W. Adorno in “Dialectic of Enlightenment: Philosophical Fragments”.

Influenced by philosophers and sociologists Bourdieu and Adorno, the latest KSIEZYC project unveils the extensive representation of artsy commodification and fetishism in our society. One thoughtful Wang X Meng collab conception, the inextricable relationship between art and commodity, and their mandatory contingency, are represented in the ultimate form of materialization: Fashion.

We fetish that.

Rolling Philosopher’s Stones. Image via CHIcn, 2019. All rights reserved

As Adorno once wrote, “Art keeps itself alive through its social force of resistance; unless it reifies itself, it becomes a commodity” — mind you, reification does not equal commodification, or so Temper has been told.

This paradox that is the relationship between art, commodity and value demonstrates itself through two veneers of art: KSIEZYC’s clothes are packed up and exhibited inside the Wang-composed boxes made for one whole year. In doing so, both the clothing as well as the boxes serve as commodities, whether in true art form or merely as the mode in a cardboard mask, the truth of which hides underneath the packaging.

Twenty black panels decorated with warning texts made from gold leaves form a quasi-religious and -undecipherable matrix of value. Nevertheless, and ironically so, this illusion is shattered into gold dust upon spotting the surrounding cardboard boxes bearing their oversized gold price tags, heralding the ultimate fate of the objects.

What is being wrapped up by commodified art is in se yet another form of commodity, i.e. one serving as the last layer covering the naked human body.

Rolling Philosopher’s Stones. Image via CHIcn, 2019. All rights reserved

Meng’s self-proclaimed “sensitivity in femininity” comes to life in the most exquisite designer details. His wish of manifesting women’s intrinsic nature is subtly tailored and woven into the fabric. His sophisticated aesthetic is always balanced with a laid-back attitude.

The street-chic style emphasized by the Zip-a-Dee-Doo-Dah — vocab switch-up in an attempt to add a lighter note to the sea of severity — back details and drawstring-embellished sleeves is his way of interfacing with contemporary society. Meng’s work transmits a sense that clothes exude the distinctive power to both veil as well as unveil the mysterious, elusive and self-contained nature that is a one woman show. Meng deems art superior to fashion, and this is where he draws his inspiration from. Elegant simplicity, without compromising practicality, is the sublimation of one man’s revering the arts.