Five handpicked members of our community showcase their AVANTgarden-inspired looks
Yesterday, pop visionary FKA twigs dropped the latest issue of her digizine AVANTgarden in collaboration with Dazed Beauty. Titled ‘Beauty of The Discarded’, the zine’s seventh issue celebrates creativity beyond consumption with a series of images shot by Nhu Xuan Hua featuring exquisite fantasy facial sculptures created by make-up and mixed media artist Lyle XOX.
Using carefully selected found objects, including some recycled rubbish donations from members of the AVANTgarden family including Courtney Love, Christopher Kane, and Extinction Rebellion Youth’s Daze Aghaji, Lyle crafted the sculptures which adorn twigs’s face, giving them new life and meaning.
‘Beauty of The Discarded’ is all about celebrating collaboration and community, so with that in mind, Dazed Beauty, alongside twigs and Lyle, handpicked five amazing members of our community – Jazzelle, Cupid, Olivia Kaiafa, Madrona Redhawk, and Tomasyn Hayes – and invited them to to reinterpret the AVANTgarden facial sculptures. Using found or household items, each member responded to a different portrait to create their looks and the results are inspiring, truly capturing the DIY spirit of the project. Showcasing the highest level of creativity and imagination, each work is as unique as its creator and a wonderful example of how resourcefulness and connection flourish during challenging times.
“Dazed Beauty encourages people to express themselves and, it's kind of almost carrying on the idea of club culture and expression into a new age,” says twigs. “It’s building a community that is encouraging people to be themselves and to be accepted. Helping people find little pockets of people doing similar things.”
As a way to further extend the collaborative nature of this issue we want to invite everyone at home to also get involved. We’re asking you to create your own looks using found or household items inspired by Lyle’s facial sculptures. “This is a beautiful way for people to be inspired and find things in their house and sticking objects and materials to their faces,” twigs says. “I want Lyle and I to be tagged in lots of different pictures! It’s about community, collaboration, inspiration, it’s about building a place on the internet where we can feel a real sense of being a collective. That’s what I’m hoping for.”
To get involved, all you need to do is post them to Instagram tagging @dazedbeauty and the hashtag #CreativityBeyondConsumption
See below for the incredible creations of our community members.
CUPID
“For this project, I only utilised materials that I had in my room: a can of silver spray paint, plastic bags, hot glue, branches I had collected from the park nearby, and string. I was really inspired by one of Lyle’s original portraits especially in the context of space and detailing, which was interesting as I typically keep my work as close to the skin as possible.”
“In times like this, the idea of being creative can seem trivial and frivolous but I have to keep reminding myself that this is the most important time to be crafty because I believe that the root of art is necessity. In a time filled with destruction it is important to keep the scales balanced by being creative.”
JAZZELLE
“I used a dozen cracked eggshells, fashioned a few feet of twine into a wavy wig piece and added some lipstick for drama. I loved the textures created on twigs’ face with powder and what looks like melted plastic as well as the use of string in one of Lyle’s portraits and wanted to play with that in my look. I decided to create a new skin by making a mosaic of eggshells on my face and finger waves of twine.”
“Creativity is very important because it’s the last thing keeping me and I’m sure many others sane right now. Creativity births new ideas, knowledge, and paths leading to better days.”
OLIVIA KAIAFA
“The materials I used for this look were maps and magazine cutouts, snippets from my 5th Grade Yearbook, green wrapping paper from a parcel, egg cartons that I painted and stars earrings. I also used a glue that I made out of flour and water since I didn’t have any adhesive for the cut outs to stick to my face.”
“Creativity and getting creative is so important right now. It enables us to stay occupied during quarantine and forces you to experiment with different materials and techniques that you wouldn’t use before. It also allows you to obtain new skills or enhance skills you already have.”
TOMASYN HAYES
“Upon seeing the image I immediately thought of adaptation; a big part of upcycling is the adaptation to uncommon materials. Artists in the future may one day be forced to only use recycled or upcycled materials.”
“For my look, I used shower curtain rings to demonstrate the synchronicity of beauty and pain in adaptation. The pain stemming from the world and the destruction we cause on it. The beauty stemming from the nature of the artist, to create something new from that destruction.”
MADRONA REDHAWK
“I recreated the portrait using a burlap bag that was (previously) full of beans from my pantry. I found some bottle caps and, lacking iridescent rings, I used bolts instead as they had a similar shape. I then found some rope to complete the recreation. It was held together by wire and hot glue.”