HERMES - MARX

all foullards are apprx. 90x90 cm, silk , sllk screen

special help for this project Charlotte Linton, Julia Hartmann (silk screening), Michaela Wirsig (printing) and the Institute of textil design of the Akademie Stuttgart - printing by Julia Hartmann, MIchaela Wirsig, Rainer Ganahl

THERE ARE TWO SETS OF WORKS

A - THE REAL HERMES FOULARDS (Les carrés /squares ) OVER PRINTED - SILK SCREENED

(in case you wonder - they are UNFORTUNATELY REAL - ie. bankrupting me)

B - THE HERMES-MARX FOLARDS MADE FROMS SCRATCH.

MORE IMAGES TO COME

HERMES MARX
The synthetic silk scarves for 99 cents would not be even worn by people who belong to the economic group of the wealthiest 10 % thought they approve of Hermes whose 90x90 cm foulards resemble real estate square foot prices. In the after match of the 2008 financial crisis this wealthy group got off to much better start much better than those at significantly larger opposite end of the financial spectrum.  Many people so far have never gotten out of the crisis to this day, but luxury consumption has widely expanded and gained in the recent years. Hermes is definitely one of those high end retailers where getting the wanted scarves is not always even easy. There products out of the best design are soon sold out if they ever even make it to the special few boutiques in verys limited few metropolises where they are sold without ever encountering a “for sale” sign or making it to a discounter. Their limited edition bags costing many thousands of dollars are rarely sold to just anyone walking in with the money but are even reserved for the elected few who have connections or belong to the who is who’s of media and glamour. But you can always make it on a waiting list and will be informed when new once arrive in the shop.

Hermes is particular in many ways, including the fact that it stays a family business and rejects big capital. They produce everything they need themselves in their traditional way and that mostly in France apart of the silk and the natural colors which they also oversee overseas. Given the low volume, the high quality of their ware and the complicated, traditional not fully automated way of producing, their pricing seems more justifiable than it appears and I am myself fascinated and intrigued by their colors and their exotic and orientalizing designs. Hermes draws most of its designs from France’s colonial past and glorifies it, something that gives it the false aura of having produced this phantasmagoric designs already since the early 19th century. To my surprise, I found out that the foulard line only was introduced in 1937, i.e. the real beginning of the end of colonial France which was accelerated by the drama of WWII. In that sense one could even ask whether the desire for visualizing French empire was anticipated by Hermes at the very moment, when France itself came under server attack by the short lived brutal Nazi Reich/empire efforts that brought the dark reality of epic catastrophe from the colonial territories to the heart of Europe effecting anything and anybody around the world.

The history and revolution making intellectual who understood the connection between the fight over colonial hegemonies and markets in the tradition of Karl Marx was Lenin who drew in 1916 a clear connection between rivaling colonial powers and nationalism in his master piece of writing on the subject, entitled “Imperialism, the highest stage of Capitalism.” Hence, the connection between HERMES and MARX is therefore not just one of funky contradictions playing on the obvious that working class people were not covering their heads and necks with the silks of this French manufacturer. Hermes scarves made it very early onto the shoulders of Queen Elizabeth II as seen on a portrait of a British postage stamp from the year 1956. For my works, I departed from the enunciative name-city connection of the brand, Hermes Paris and silk screened my variation onto the very Hermes items itself elevating them to another kind of art, i.e. contemporary art, hence destroying the rather expensive user item as such.

The design of my printing was a monochrome abstraction of a hammer and sickle as well as the words HERMES MARX suggesting that PARIS, standing for ubiquitous beauty and style is now replaced by MARX, standing for endless questions and demands about social justice and economic workings. Even in German universities, students do not necessarily know anymore that the combination of hammer and sickle was the main symbol of communism. Apart of printing directly onto the original foulards, I also created some new scarf designs printing on white silk thus alluding to the abstract foulards made by Josef Albers for Hermes in the 1950s, the high days of the cold war.

Hermès Marx, Harnais français, Première empire, 1956s/2013

original silk Hermes foullard plus silk screened Hermès colors, ink , apprx. 90 x 90 cm  (from 1950s/2013 Hermes)

Hermès Marx, Cheval Turc, 1950/2013

original silk Hermes foullard plus silk screened Hermès colors ink , apprx. 90 x 90 cm  (from 1950s/ 2013 Hermes

Hermès Marx, Soie indiens d'amérique Kachinas, 1973/2013

original silk Hermes foullard plus silk screened Hermès colors ink , apprx. 90 x 90 cm  (from 1970s or 80s/ 2013 Hermes)

HERMÈS MARX, SURETE CELERITE, POETE AUX LETTERS, 1956/2013

original silk Hermes foullard plus silk screened Hermès colors ink , apprx. 90 x 90 cm  ( 1950s/2013 Hermes)

(dec.c)

HERMÈS MARX, LUDOVICUS MAGNUS, 1963/2013

original silk Hermes foullard plus silk screened Hermès colors ink , apprx. 90 x 90 cm  (from 1950s/ 2013 Hermes)

(dec.c)

HERMÈS MARX, .... , 1950/2013

original silk Hermes foullard plus silk screened Hermès colors ink , apprx. 90 x 90 cm  (from 50s or 60s/ 2013 Hermes)

Hermès Marx, Napleon, 1950/2013

original silk Hermes foullard plus silk screened Hermès colors ink , apprx. 90 x 90 cm  (from 50s/ 2013 Hermes)

(dev.c)

--- coming

"LUDOVICUS MAGNUS" silk s... (200936354981)

Hermès Marx, Soie mexique / Mexican Silk, 2013

original silk Hermes foullard plus silk screened black ink , apprx. 90 x 90 cm  (from Spring/Sommer 2013 Hermes)

(dec.c)

Hermes Marx, Isphahan, 1950s/2013

original silk Hermes foullard plus silk screened black ink , apprx. 90 x 90 cm 

Hermes Marx, Chevaux arabes /Arab Horses, 1950s/2013s

original silk Hermes foullard plus silk screened black ink , 90 x 90 cm

Hermes Marx, Caparaçon de la France et de L'Inde / Caparison of France and India, 1950s/2013s

original silk Hermes foullard plus silk screened black ink , 90 x 90 cm

Hermes Marx, Caravelle, 1950s/2013s

original silk Hermes foullard plus silk screened black ink , 90 x 90 cm

(dev c)

Hermes Marx, Ali-Baba, 1950s/2013s

original silk Hermes foullard plus silk screened black ink , 90 x 90 cm

HERMES MARX, THE FOUR CONTINENTS, 1950s/2013

4 original silk Hermes scarves plus silk screened black ink , 90 x 90 cm s

Hermes Marx, Junks and Sampans, 1950s/2013

EUROPE

ASIA

AFRICA

AMERICA

ad B: - THE HERMES-MARX FOLARDS MADE FROM SCRATCH.

Hermes-Marx, Hermès Marx, 2013

black ink on white silk, apprx.  95 x 40 cm

Hermes-Marx, Hermès Marx, 2013

black ink on white silk, apprx.  95 x 40 cm

set one:

HERMES MARX, HOMAGE TO THE SQUARE (Josef Albers), 1950S/2013

a play on the Hans Albers collection for Hermes, 1950s

set two:

HERMES MARX, HOMAGE TO HAMMER AND SICKLE, 1917/2013

a play on Hermes's homage to the squre series by josef albers 1888–1976

more hermes marx works