Young British artist Henry Hussey has chain-embroidered, digitally printed and beaded his colourful and provocative textiles onto antique naval flags, duvets and tablecloths. Now, in a new collaboration with MSGM’s Massimo Giorgetti, Hussey’s patched and slogan heavy creations also feature in a capsule collection of denim jackets, frayed sweaters and t-shirts.
‘My initial interest in textiles actually came from fashion,’ explains Hussey, whose textured and Swarovski crystal adorned tapestries take inspiration from evocative personal experiences, from fractured paternal relationships to the effects of political instability in Britain. ‘Fashion enables the wearer to project how they view themselves or want to be perceived. Before becoming a fine artist, it was my intention to design fabrics for fashion collections,’ he says.
MSGM’s Massimo Giorgetti was drawn to Hussey’s strong and irreverent aesthetic and his passion for texture
At Hussey’s ’Reliquaries’ exhibition in July last year, shown at Gallery 8 in London, his textile designs took the form of diary-like embroidered texts, sewn onto dip-dyed damask and bleached cotton, and illustrated with snakes, skulls and ancient armour. A literary pastime associated with teenage hood, Hussey’s flame patched and romantically worded designs for MSGM also look to the highs and lows of adolescence. ‘I was reminiscing about my late teens and early twenties,’ he says. ‘They were filled with moments of ecstatic elation and heartbreak, euphoria and intense upheaval. I wanted my experiences of this transitional period to act as a basis for my compositions.’
‘I am deeply moved by the words Hussey uses in his embroidery, his passion for texture and his three dimensionality,’ Giorgetti says of his decision to collaborate with the fledgling artist. Known for its ebullient colour combinations and unusual prints and finishes, MSGM also collaborated with Toilet Paper magazine in 2014, produced by long-time collaborators Maurizio Cattelan and Pierpaolo Ferrari. Eccentric spliced apple and lipstick prints featured on sweatshirts and swimwear, alongside collages of frogs encased in burger buns. ‘The common denominator with our collaborators is their use of irreverence and irony’ Giorgetti explains. ‘Hussey’s strong and sometimes disturbing aesthetic sense is one that to me also echoes the essence of MSGM.’
