Disobedient Bodies: JW Anderson curates the Hepworth Wakefield

A personal selection of sculptures will be on display, alongside notable fashion pieces and objects of craft and design, investigating the way the human form has been reimagined by artists and designers across the 20th and 21st centuries.

The selection is shaped by Anderson’s long-standing passion for modern art, from the mid-20th century, and the underlying questions of gender that have been posed by his own fashion collections at JW Anderson.

Figurative sculptures by artists including Jean Arp, Louise Bourgeois, Lynn Chadwick, Naum Gabo, Barbara Hepworth, Sarah Lucas, Henry Moore, Magali Reus and Dorothea Tanning will be brought into direct dialogue with fashion pieces by designers such as Christian Dior, Jean Paul Gaultier, Rei Kawakubo of Commes des Garçons, Helmut Lang and Issey Miyake.

Anderson will collaborate with Tom Emerson and Stephanie Macdonald of 6a architects to present this exhibition, which will unfold across the galleries, offering a series of contrasting experiences for you to explore.

As part of the exhibition, photographer Jamie Hawkesworth, described by Dazed as "one of the most visionary fashion photographers working today" – and who has collaborated with international fashion brands including JW Anderson, Alexander McQueen and Miu Miu – worked with 123 school children from Wakefield College; Cundall Manor and Hemsworth Arts & Community Academy, photographing them in the space, wearing fashion pieces from the exhibition. A selection of the images will be on display and reproduced in a publication that accompanies the show, published by InOtherWords.

Disobedient Bodies: JW Anderson curates The Hepworth Wakefield is the first in a new series of exhibitions at the award-winning gallery, curated by key figures from creative fields outside the visual arts, from fashion and music to film and literature.

The exhibition gathers together a personal selection of more than 100 objects spanning art, fashion, ceramics and design in a series of unexpected and irreverent groupings. Using fabric from JW Anderson’s archive, 6a architects have transformed the David Chipperfield-designed galleries into a series of rooms that are designed to conjure an intimate social gathering.

Launching today, 18 March, it will run until 18 June 2017. The fully illustrated book published by InOtherWords, with introductory essay by Vogue’s Sarah Mower, will accompany the exhibition, RRP £30. Special in-gallery exhibition price £25.

Main image: Installation shot of Disobedient Bodies: JW Anderson curates The Hepworth Wakefield. Photo: Lewis Ronald. Courtesy The Hepworth Wakefield.