Arlette’s debut show is an ode to her father and her childhood in Mexico

Despite having caught the attention of fashion luminaries when she presented her graduate collection last year (Kendrick Lamar’s stylist Taylor McNeill is a fan and Dazed editor-in-chief Ib Kamara styled Naomi Campbell in her pieces), multidisciplinary artist Arlette didn’t always envision entering the fashion or art world. Having been born and raised in Mexico by her beloved father, surrounded by roosters and horses, she imagined a future more connected to the land than to the catwalk or the clean lines of gleaming white exhibition spaces. Gesturing around the Rose Easton gallery at the private view of her first solo exhibition, José, she says, “It's quite interesting to be in this room because I thought, at this point in my life, I would be a horse girl.” 

Yet José remains very true to this powerfully charismatic artist’s enduring ‘horse girl’ spirit. Straddling the boundary between fashion and art, Arlette’s signature pieces so far are the baroque cowboy-esque leather belts for which she first received such acclaim – created with ornate buckles more like unique, wearable sculptures than accessories. Here, visitors can purchase a limited edition belt from an exquisitely decorated vending machine inside the exhibition – a gesture to the thinly veiled commercial imperative that underpins all commercial galleries.

Elsewhere, José is comprised of intricate sculptural works made with elemental materials – primarily volcanic rock and metal. “I was not raised in an art context, but I was raised in a lot of culture and knowing how to manage certain materials, like metal,” she explains. “My father is from Zacatecas and that’s a capital of silver. So this is who I am and what I know how to do.” 

The influence of her father – for whom the exhibition is named – permeates the entire exhibition. “I wanted to be as honest and true to who I am. So, I decided to dedicate the show to my father and to being raised by him,” Arlette says. “The show makes reference to certain things that are important and that I want to remember… faith, love, prayers; certain symbols that, for me, I encounter as my own religion – roosters, horses. And the materials, which have brought me to where I am at the moment, are also from my hometown.” 

References to the man who raised her are embedded everywhere. The iconography of hyper-masculinity is entwined with the religious symbols which adorned the home Arlette grew up in, and ribbons of script crafted in silver enshrine richly potent phrases such as, ‘Todo lo que deseas, que Dios te lo multiplique’ (Everything that you desire for me, may God multiply for you).

Arlette’s intricate silverwork not only connects the artist to her father’s hometown and the practice of working with metal, passed down over generations, but with a deeply spiritual and meaningful symbolic presence of silver that recurs throughout Mexican culture and folklore. In a hypnotic text accompanying the exhibition, Issac de Reza writes, “The shining of metal reveals a noble intensity. A material that refuses to break, defying the force applied through hours of intensive physical labour. Its strength promises an everlasting existence, therefore the final forms become relics. Metal has a multitude of religious meanings in Mexican society; believed to haunt vampires to protect children and ultimately to make spirituality tangible. Metallic possessions are a social imaginary that link us to our loved ones.” And so the themes and meanings embedded in Arlette’s work and practice are a continuum, resonating and reflecting on the polished, careworn surfaces of her own creation.

Visit the gallery above for a closer look.

Arlette’s José is running at Rose Easton’s gallery (223 Cambridge Heath Road, London, E2 0EL) until November 4, 2023. 

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