Local artist Aaron Padilla is looking forward to comparing notes with Fendi’s Roman craftsmen when the luxury house launches its "Fatto a Mano for the Future (Handmade for the Future)" design focus in Hawaii Friday through Monday.
Fendi has partnered with Padilla and rubber sculptor Eli Baxter in the program, which supports work of emerging contemporary artists in a collaboration that expresses the company’s values of craftsmanship and artistry.
The artists will be working in-store with a Fendi craftsman to create contemporary works that fuse their signature craft with Fendi’s sensibilities and materials.
For both Hawaii artists, working with Fendi represented a crash course in learning to incorporate luxurious leathers and furs into their work. Baxter’s installations of recycled bicycle tire rubber and Fendi Selleria’s leather explores spatial experiences through conical, floral and intricate organic installations that can look like a colony of living organisms.
CREATE A BAG OF YOUR OWN
Private appointments are being taken to help shoppers create and customize their own Fendi Selleria handbag during both events. Twenty percent of proceeds from the event will benefit the artists’ alma mater, the University of Hawaii art department.
For more information, call the Ala Moana store at 973-3311 or Waikiki store at 971-5611.
|
Padilla manipulates natural wood segments into elegant woven and knotted sculptures incorporating Fendi Selleria leather to create a mix of unusual, modern textures.
"It took a lot of mind grafting," Padilla said of his work. "When you look at it, the wood and leather seem to complement each other very well, but as far as figuring out how to incorporate the leather, it took a while. It doesn’t lend itself to being meshed with wood."
Although he’s worked with many media, from paint to clay, it was his first experience with leather, and he said, "As with anything new, you think you just cut the leather, but it’s a lot more difficult than you think. It’s always stretching, always moving."
Even the act of stitching leather, which he dived into, entails a 10-year learning process at Fendi.
He said he and Baxter were always on the phone consulting, asking questions like, "Can you make a straight cut?" and elatedly calling back, "I figured it out!"
Padilla said he had learned an appreciation of luxury craftsmanship over time. "My fiancée would drag me around Ala Moana Center, and I would be, like, ‘Omigod, this is so boring,’ but over the years, from standing at the racks, holding her bag and looking at the things, it became a source of inspiration to me. I would look at something and think, ‘That’s a really cool pattern,’ and looking at the handbags, there’s a structure to them that’s sculptural."
Through the process, Padilla said he tried to avoid dwelling on the value of materials he was working with, the cost of which was impressed upon him by his sister, whose incredulous response was, "You’re working with what?"
"You can’t think like that because then you don’t learn about the material. You’re not jumping in and going full blast because you’re self-editing and trying to be so careful."
Ruining some of the leather was an unfortunate part of the learning curve, he said, while admitting that at moments of weakness, he thought, "‘I can’t waste this. I can upholster my office chair.’ I was battling that the whole way."
Baxter will be at the Ala Moana boutique from 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. Friday and Saturday, and Padilla will be at the Royal Hawaiian Center shop from noon to 9 p.m. Sunday and Monday. Admission is free to both events.
