Story of the Month
In the studio with Anders Dickson

This month, American Supply presents the first in a series of conversations with creatives who use our materials. We took a trip to the celebrated artist's residency at Cité Internationale des Arts, next to Paris’ Île Saint-Louis, to meet American artist Anders Dickson in his studio to discuss his working method, his upcoming show in Amsterdam, and what he loves about American Supply’s materials!
AS: To begin this new series of conversations with creatives and designers who use our materials, we thought, let’s start with an artist!   AD: *laughs* I’m laughing because when I pick things from your showroom, I select many different materials, and buy small quantities, whereas I imagine that fashion designers pick one material and buy large swathes of it! I use very small pieces of each material in the works as elements, and the rest makes up my studio stock.   AS: You might be surprised to hear that we work with many embroiders who also take lots of different materials in smaller quantities and use small pieces to make flower petals or details in exquisite embroidery applications. Compared to them, you’re using them in much larger pieces!   AD: I’m always impressed by the team there and their ability to see and suggest things. Your showroom is so psychedelic and full of impressions, that if I was there every day I would have to go home to an empty white room, to sensory detox every night!    That has been hard for me recently because I’m living in the studio at Cité. I’m clean and ordered at home, and the rest happens in the studio. I come from a family of engineers and scientists, so they are very structured in their thoughts. I studied philosophy before the arts, so I have a tendency towards structuring, but, also, an affinity towards being psychotic – or navigating the weirdosphere – and the great thing about art is that it gives you the parameters to go far out within this paradigm. It is easy to do this when the studio is separated from the homeworld, when you get back home you can reflect on what you made, cook etc. That distance is important to me. Over Christmas I had Covid, and I had to isolate myself here for ten days, which evolved into three and a half weeks, hitting me hard with vertigo. My perception was disturbed.   AS: Were you able to work in the studio during that time?   AD: As you can see, a lot of the work is rather intense: nothing has clear form, the materials are varied, the colours are bright etc. And I also use a lot of hot glue and didn’t want to use anything that could potentially affect my breathing. In that period, I ended up painting more and making drawings. The Covid work was more of a preparatory phase for the ideas for the show that is coming up in Amsterdam. In the studio I allow myself to be messy and chaotic, so I found myself sitting at my desk with my back to the work!

Sculptural works incorporating American Supply materials

Images courtesy of Anders Dickson

AS: Are the materials you work with that are more varied always in your sculptural works or do they find their way into the paintings too?   AD: I tend to show them together so that it doesn’t always feel like the same things are in the same room. I think for this upcoming show there will be a smaller room that is a painting realm, and the sculptures will live together. I am interested right now in how to embed the graphic world, the pictorial plane, into the objects too. So that there is not such a clean-cut between representation and physical objects.   AS: There is also a lot of painting in the sculptures too…   AD: I think the beginning of the sculptural practice, and installation practice, comes from drawings, watercolours, linear elements and colour gradients. I like to cover the materials with paint. I was considering using plinths in the upcoming show, like a did in the show at Balice Hertling, and right now I’m intrigued by the idea of – because of their scale – using different jackets and coats to present the sculptures on. So that they don’t rely too much on the paintings in the space. This is just an idea for the moment…    AS: It’s also interesting because you made these things in a space that is both domestic and workspace. So, they merge studio-life and real-life, especially if you turned your backs on them while they were being made!   AD: *laughs* Yes! I’m intrigued by it; I will take a lot of jackets with me in my suitcase and play around with them in the space.
AS: How do you feel the materials you work with manifest when you’re putting them together. Do you believe that they bring something of themselves to the work?   AD: Absolutely. I’m really into the process philosophy understanding of the world, object-oriented ontology as well – I start with an impulse to make something and then try to exert a force on the materials to make them comply with the idea, and it usually reaches an impasse, where it’s not reaching my expectations. At that moment, there’s usually a destructive moment where I start breaking things apart or covering them with colour.    In ‘Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance’ there’s this great moment where the author talks about the idea of ‘gumption’ – imagine you are trying to remove a bolt: you try so hard that you end up stripping it, so now, not only do you have to remove the bolt, you also have to cut the panel it’s mounted on which creates even more work because you’re so close to the problem that you can’t see it from a greater perspective. At that moment you step away for ten minutes and realise you can jimmy it and it comes off smoother, with ease.   With my practice, I’m often so tied to it that when a problem arrives, I end up just breaking something, but I realise that that moment is important to me too because after that breaking moment the materials are not subservient to my expectations of what I want them to be, and at that point, I can work together with them and see the qualities that I first saw in them. The way I work with materials is like a rune system, I pull them together from different sources - yourselves, the street, and other suppliers - and then I select three or four and work out how I will work with them. There’s a lot of unconscious at work.   AS: Does the composition of the material concern you? We are focussed on sustainability, and eco-innovative solutions, and have a lot of conversations about material composition in the showroom. We encourage people to work with materials that are more suited to their application. For example, thermo-moulded plastic parts in aeroplanes are the most sustainable material solution for the job. They are lightweight – meaning the craft uses less fuel to fly – and hard-wearing, therefore long life, in a high traffic environment. The way that you use plastic materials sparingly in your sculptural works, emphasises their preciousness. There is an ecological implication there somehow.   AD: I love the transparencies and psychedelic hallucinogenic aspects of a lot of the materials you have, and I work with them alongside paper-mâché, and wood, but ecologically, even acrylic paint is problematic… It’s easy to hate plastics but Ivory used to be used to make piano keys, and so many innovations were made thanks to plastics.  Everything is made with a personal touch and there is no outsourcing, I appreciate a personal charge and a personal relationship with the material. A lot of these materials are found or sourced from places like yourselves - which makes them nobler as they are more costly than some others – but as a DIY practice there is something about assemblage and bricolage, and a lot of the works speak to the idea of upcycling. Art making is transformative and alchemical, but I like the idea of collaging and using materials that have their histories or DNA into new objects.
AS: The materials that you select from us are very technical too, you’re choosing things that have lenticular aspects, holographic effects, glass-bead reflections etc. these are all materials that have been specifically developed supernaturally. These are not things you could just find; they might imitate things in nature and play with our perception, but they have peculiarities.    AD: It is difficult too because I choose things from American Supply that are so strong and seductive, that I have to embed them into my language. A lot of these objects are highly charged frenetic objects, which are loud, so I like the idea that some things in the space are larger and quieter. Thinking about the static jumping from one object to another, this piece is reliant on how beautiful this strong yellow Reflective Prisme is. I’m interested in layering watercolours behind it too to see the special optical effect of the material.    I also integrated this pink Tinted Fluo into this work here, with a layer of pink Reflective Prisme on top, which creates a wormhole almost, with the distance between them.   AS: It’s almost like a gazing pool! That’s very beautiful.   AD: Or a belly button!
AS: People often come to us for a specific effect for their project and we present the materials we have in stock, possible transformation technologies or order something in from our wider catalogue, discuss bespoke possibilities etc. but the way that you work with our materials is very different, you get seduced by them as they are, as you would by something you might find in the street, and then you hoard them together, before extracting them bit by bit with other things for specific works. They then inform not only the sculptural works, but also the paintings, with their aspect, colour, surface texture etc. which I find beautiful, and that is something I hadn’t realised until I came here to the studio!   AD: This is what I was referring to earlier, I think it’s very easy to be seduced by your materials and want to show them in their raw form. This is ok in moments, you can make a sculpture out of just plaster, or bronze, but these materials themselves are very seductive. I feel they are noble, they have a strong value, but they shouldn’t be put on a pedestal. They must work their way into the material universe of the works, and not just take precedence. In the past, I have cast things in bronze or used expensive epoxy clays, but this juxtaposition between expense and value in the works is sometimes problematic. Sometimes the value of things makes them harder to work with. At Elena Filipovic’s recent conference on David Hammons’ work at Bourse de Commerce, she talked about a restriction he imposed on himself in the ‘90s to fix his material budget to 6$ per sculpture! This was at the same moment that his friends were working with exotic papers and materials, and it appeals to me this idea, that you don’t have to invest exclusively in expensive materials. It is valid as a practice, but that’s not my intrigue.   AS: Of course, and we wouldn’t be sitting here together if we weren’t seduced by materials! Materials are seductive and they do have charge, power and agency.

Sculptural works incorporating American Supply materials

Images courtesy of Anders Dickson

Anders Dickson's show in Amsterdam opens on April 23rd, at PAKT art centre

P/////AKT Zeeburgerpad 53 1019 AB Amsterdam

All images are courtesy of American Supply & Anders Dickson unless otherwise stated.

#ASLOVES
Thinking
Outside of the Box

We always champion unexpected uses of materials and out-of-the-box thinking. This month #asloves the concept shoes created by British fashion designer Craig Green, as part of his ongoing collaboration with Adidas Originals.    For the first concept shoe, Green re-imagined the classic Adidas Stan Smith. He wanted to create a shoe that had the feel of the Stan Smith whilst disguising its unmistakable looks. His solution was remarkable! He made a cast of the classic Stan Smith shoe on the interior, and the exterior became a bulbous form, leaving only the perforated stripes as a visual memory of the iconic design.
So, actually, you don't ever really see the original shoe or all of the details associated with it, but your foot experiences them. We left the three stripe perforations on the external of the cast, which not only maintained that key detail, but was functional, as it allowed the foot to breathe.” Green, Interviewed by Sam Cole for High Snobiety    For the second concept shoe, Green researched diving equipment and uniforms. He reimagined a vintage divers shoe in natural and black latex, complete with pump, foot treads and Adidas logo. These shoes were produced in a latex dip-moulding factory, that specializes in the production of medical and diving suits. 
These concept shoes will not be available for commercial sales, but Green has also developed several commercial Adidas Originals that reimagined the classic Stan Smith.

Quote courtesy High Snobiety

Images: Dan Tobin Smith for Adidias

Story of the Month
Les détails font la perfection …

… et la perfection n'est pas un détail !

  Retour à la normale pour le monde de la mode avec la fin des défilés virtuels. Mise en lumière de nos looks préférés ainsi que des différentes matières au cœur des collections haute couture printemps/été 2022.
Chez Schiaparelli, le Directeur Artistique Daniel Roseberry a créé de superbes ornements en or 24 carats, réinterprétant les broderies classiques de la collection Zodiac de Schiap’s en 1938, des bijoux vivants et sculpturaux défiant la gravité, continuant ainsi à redéfinir les codes de la maison. Chez Christian Dior, Maria Grazia Chiuri s'intéresse davantage aux subtilités et au savoir-faire propres à une collection de Haute Couture. L’apparente simplicité des silhouettes est démentie par la complexité vertigineuse du travail manuel réalisé par ses ateliers, avec des vêtements mettant la broderie à l’honneur dans une palette discrète.
Chez Jean Paul Gaultier, le designer invité cette saison était Glenn Martens de Y/Project's, qui s'est acquitté de sa tâche avec aplomb en présentant une collection exceptionnelle. Les rayures bretonnes étaient habillées de corail, les looks en taffetas cachaient des structures en fil de fer complexes permettant de défier la gravité, les tricots révélaient les corps, et le bondage était adouci par des rubans. Pierpaolo Piccioli a redéfini les formes chez Valentino, se basant sur dix mannequins cabine au lieu du l’unique mannequin habituel pour crées ses silhouettes. Au travers de ces changements, il souffle un vent de modernité et d’inclusivité pour l’avenir.
La Directrice Artistique de Chanel, Virginie Viard, s'est inspirée des années 20 et du constructivisme pour nous offrir une collection délicate, semblant flotter sur le podium, déluge de paillettes, de broderies et de techniques artisanales méticuleuses. Pour la scénographie, Viard a collaboré avec l'artiste Xavier Veilhan, qui a su créer la mise en scène parfaite pour son offre élégante. Nous avons aussi particulièrement apprécié Viktor & Rolf, Elie Saab, Rahul Mishra et Roland Van der Kamp, qui ont tous mis la barre très haut cette saison.
Enfin, Alexis Mabille nous a donné des papillons - littéralement. Il était difficile de ne pas tomber en amour devant cette collection, où de délicats papillons métalliques ornent les mannequins ; une touche romantique à cette couture autrement sensuelle, mais résolument portable - "Elle dessine le corps presque comme une goutte de parfum ou un trait de maquillage". (Mabille sur Vogue.com)

Toutes les images sont créditées dans l'image.

#ASLOVES
Léger et plus Solide que l’Acier

Les plastiques sont souvent diabolisés, ce qui est contre-productif quand on songe à leur potentiel. Bien que les plastiques à usage unique ne soient certainement pas respectueux de l'environnement, nous ne devons pas minimiser les avantages environnementaux des plastiques utilisés dans des applications appropriées à plus long terme. En tant que matériau, le plastique est merveilleux : il est léger, solide et facilement modelable. Sans le plastique, nous n'aurions pas connu de tels progrès en médecine, en aviation, en automobile ou en électronique. Et, contrairement au verre ou à l'acier, la production du plastique nécessite très peu d'énergie.   Ce mois-ci, #asloves le nouveau développement polymère - 2DPA-1 - mis au jour par des chercheurs du MIT :   Grâce à un nouveau processus de polymérisation, les ingénieurs chimistes du MIT ont créé un nouveau matériau plus solide que l'acier et aussi léger que le plastique, qui peut aisément être fabriqué en grandes quantités. Ce nouveau matériau est un polymère bidimensionnel qui s'auto-assemble en feuilles, contrairement à tous les autres polymères, qui forment des chaînes unidimensionnelles semblables à des spaghettis. Jusqu'à présent, les scientifiques pensaient qu'il était impossible d'amener les polymères à former des feuilles en 2D.MIT News Office, 2 février, 2022
Le potentiel de ce nouveau matériau est énorme, il pourrait révolutionner les secteurs de l'automobile, de l'aviation, de la technologie et de la construction. Il s'est avéré deux fois plus résistant que l'acier lors des tests de charge, avec seulement un sixième de la masse du matériau.   Leur nouveau procédé de polymérisation leur permet de générer une feuille bidimensionnelle appelée polyaramide. Pour les blocs de construction monomères, ils utilisent un composé appelé mélamine, issu d’une combinaison d'atomes de carbone et d'azote. Dans les bonnes conditions, ces monomères se développent en deux dimensions, formant des disques. Ces disques s'empilent les uns sur les autres, maintenus par des liaisons hydrogène entre les couches, ce qui rend la structure très stable et solide.
Une autre caractéristique clé du 2DPA-1 est qu'il est imperméable aux gaz. Alors que d'autres polymères sont constitués de chaînes enroulées présentant des lacunes qui permettent aux gaz de s'infiltrer, le nouveau matériau est composé de monomères qui s'assemblent comme des LEGO empêchant les molécules de se glisser entre eux.   Cela pourrait nous permettre de créer des revêtements ultrafins capables d'empêcher totalement l'eau ou les gaz de passer... Ce type de revêtement barrière pourrait être utilisé pour protéger le métal des voitures et autres véhicules, ou les structures en acier. Habituellement, on ne pense pas au plastique comme une matière pouvant soutenir un bâtiment, mais avec ce matériau, nous sommes capables de nouvelles choses. Il possède des propriétés très inhabituelles et nous sommes très enthousiastes à l’idée de les explorer.Michael Strano, professeur d'ingénierie chimique au MIT   Bien que le 2DPA-1 en soit encore au stade de la recherche, il est porteur d'espoir car un plastique plus résistant signifie moins de plastique inefficace. Bravo !   Visitez le site du MIT pour en savoir plus : https://news.mit.edu/2022/polymer-lightweight-material-2d-0202

Citations MIT

Image : film polymère avec l'aimable autorisation des chercheurs ; Christine Daniloff, MIT

MIT News Office

#ASLOVES
A New Lightweight Material Stronger Than Steel

Plastics are often demonized, which is counterproductive to their potential. Though single-use plastics are certainly not environmentally friendly, we should not knock the environmental benefits of plastics that are used in appropriate long-term applications. As a material, plastic is marvellous: it is light, strong and easily moldable. Without plastics, we would not have been able to make the advances we have made in medicine, aviation, automobiles or electronics. And, unlike glass or steel, plastic takes very little energy to produce.   This month #asloves the new polymer development - 2DPA-1 - that was revealed by researchers at MIT:   Using a novel polymerization process, MIT chemical engineers have created a new material that is stronger than steel and as light as plastic, and can be easily manufactured in large quantities. The new material is a two-dimensional polymer that self-assembles into sheets, unlike all other polymers, which form one-dimensional, spaghetti-like chains. Until now, scientists had believed it was impossible to induce polymers to form 2D sheets.MIT News Office, February 2, 2022
The potential for this new material is huge, it could revolutionize the automobile, aviation, technology and construction industries - it has proven to be two times stronger than steel under load tests, with just one-sixth of the material bulk.   Their new polymerization process allows them to generate a two-dimensional sheet called a polyaramide. For the monomer building blocks, they use a compound called melamine, which contains a ring of carbon and nitrogen atoms. Under the right conditions, these monomers grow in two dimensions, forming disks. These disks stack on top of each other, held together by hydrogen bonds between the layers, which make the structure very stable and strong.
Another key feature of 2DPA-1 is that it is impermeable to gases. While other polymers are made from coiled chains with gaps that allow gases to seep through, the new material is made from monomers that lock together like LEGOs, and molecules cannot get between them.   This could allow us to create ultrathin coatings that can completely prevent water or gases from getting through… This kind of barrier coating could be used to protect metal in cars and other vehicles, or steel structures. We don’t usually think of plastics as being something that you could use to support a building, but with this material, you can enable new things. It has very unusual properties and we’re very excited about that.Michael Strano, MIT professor of chemical engineering   Though 2DPA-1 is still in the research stage, it gives hope as better more hardy plastic, means less inefficient plastic - Bravo!   Visit the MIT news site to learn more: https://news.mit.edu/2022/polymer-lightweight-material-2d-0202

Quotes courtesy MIT

Image credit: Christine Daniloff, MIT

Story of the Month
Details make perfection …

... and perfection is not a detail!

  With physical fashion shows coming back, the fashion world is finally returning to a new normality. We highlight our favourite looks and uses of materials in the Spring/Summer 2022 Haute Couture collections.
At Schiaparelli, their Artistic Director Daniel Roseberry delivered 24-carat gold couture, with magnificent interpretations of classic embroidery from Schiap’s 1938 Zodiac Collection, sculptural gravity-defying living jewellery and continued to redefine the house codes. Over at Christian Dior, Maria Grazia Chiuri was more interested in the subtleties and craftsmanship in an Haute Couture collection. The visual simplicity of her silhouettes was belied by the dizzyingly intricate handiwork that her ateliers achieved, with garments entirely created out of embroidery and a subdued palette.
At Jean Paul Gaultier, the guest designer this season was Y/Project’s Glenn Martens, who took to the task with aplomb turning out a stellar collection. Breton stripes had coral sprouting out of them, taffeta looks had complex wiring structures hidden inside them to create cloud-like forms, knitted looks revealed body, and bondage was softened with ribbons. Valentino's Pierpaolo Piccioli redefined form by using ten varied fit models instead of the traditional one to create his silhouettes. He schooled us in colour and scale to give us new shapes fit for the future.
Chanel’s artistic director Virginie Viard looked to the ’20s and the feminine side of constructivism to give us a delicate collection that floated down the runway, showered in sequins, embroidery, and meticulous artisanal techniques. Viard collaborated with artist Xavier Veilhan on the set design, who created the perfect backdrop for her elegant offer. Also, we particularly enjoyed Viktor & Rolf, Elie Saab, Rahul Mishra, and Roland Van der Kamp - all of whom pushed the bars of Haute Couture construction and embellishment higher this season.
Finally, Alexis Mabille gave us butterflies - literally. It was hard not to fall in love with his collection that had delicate metallic butterflies adorning the models; a romantic touch to his otherwise sensual, yet defiantly wearable, twist on couture - “It traces the body almost like a drop of perfume or a hint of make-up” (Mabille to Vogue.com)

All images are credited in the image.