Set designer Rachel Thomas loves creating illusions out of real things, and for her, it's a fascinating paradox that can make everyday life seem as ethereal as a dream. In spring and summer, ANEST COLLECTIVE also brings the circulation, fluctuation and unpredictable light and shadow game to the body with architectural precision tailoring.
“ANEST is a very creative brand. It has a real attention to detail, it is all about the whole thing coming together, the design and the manufacturing.They seem like they thought about that as their starting point, that they manufacture in Italy, with specific qualities of materials and fabrics and processes that give their collection a distinctly understated, luxurious quality,which is very specific in today's market.”Rachel’s understanding of brands is the starting point of her inspiration.
The encounter of Rachel and ANEST COLLECTIVE creates a drama that is both virtual and real. Rachel Thomas builds a surreal scene -- fantastic weightlessness, bright colors, weird lines, different media -- and ANEST COLLECTIVE walks through it, performing one fleeting precious moment after another.
Over two floors of the ANEST COLLECTIVE boutique in Shanghai, the drama is condensed into an immersive art installation that allows for a brief escape from reality.
INSTALLATION for ANEST COLLECTIVE
Once based in New York and now in London, Rachel Thomas has played many roles: designing prints, window dressing, directing short films... She chewed on this rich resume, and inspiration blossomed here.
Italian artist Fausto Melotti is known for his "weightless structures." His abstract sculptures are playful but rooted in mathematical, rational thinking. The rigorous and prudent design philosophy of ANEST COLLECTIVE coincides with it, and Rachel Thomas is also inspired by it. She uses metal circular tubes as muscles and bones, and three-dimensional abstract lines to build an intriguing experimental sculpture.
The hanging dynamics were internalized from Ruth Asawa's work. The metal-weaving artist has said that her creations stem from "the observation of plants, the swirling shells of snails, the light through the wings of insects, the spiders spinning their webs in the morning, and the sun through the drops of water hanging from the tips of pine needles as we water our gardens." The colored glass plate and metal coil on the device are also incubating vitality in the calm, which only need to be gently swayed to affect the light and shadow and change the dimension.
“we didn't want to make anything that was too imposing in the space, because it's such an impressive and airy simple space, we wanted to maintain that. So I think our design kind of came out of creating something that had a presence.” Said Rachel.
ANEST COLLECTIVE's images of SS21 fall on stained glass, black and white like a nostalgic film. The adjacent rotating device is like Matisse's paper cut, and as it turns, it creates infinite interest in light and shadow.
Rachel Thomas says: "I love to observe how people react and behave in my scenarios." In the space of ANEST COLLECTIVE, light and shadow overlap, virtual and real are unbounded, and the viewer is the creator.
Set scenery: Rachel Thomas
Installation photography: Boris Shiu
Behind the scenes photography：Simon Waldock
