Here is an interesting meeting of fashion and art from my past.  This features a piece we used to own, Tim Hawkinson’s Eye Globe 1992 and a dress it inspired–Issey Miyake’s dress from the Pleats Please Guest Artist No. Series.

Eye Globe was probably the only piece  I ever purchased without showing it to my husband first.  Luckily for me, he loved it too!   I think Tim Hawkinson and I arrived at Ace Gallery at almost the same time.  I remember seeing one of his pieces on my very first visit to Ace.   I kept following Tim’s work, waiting for just the right piece.  When I saw Eye Globe, I knew right away that it was a perfect example of Tim’s work.  It had all the important Hawkinson hallmarks — a focus on a body part,  mechanical movement,  and  use of quirky materials.  This piece had colored dolls eyes, the kind that open and close.  The eyes were embedded in what had probably been a globe on a stand previously, now covered with a textured  “skin”.  The globe was connected to a motor,  that caused it to rotate and made the eyes open and close with unique clicking sounds.  It always reminded me of people all over the  world waking and going to sleep at any moment,half of the world awake, half of the world asleep.  And there were also a few eyes that didn’t open completely – sort of sleepy eyes.

I purchased it before it was even shown at a gallery exhibition.  But that didn’t keep it from catching the eye of art world.  It was soon exhibited  at The California Center for the Arts in Escondido, CA. in an exhibition called”California in  Three Dimensions”.  From there, it was exhibited in several other museums around the country.

I was really excited when Tim told me  he would be collaborating with Issey Miyake on his Pleats Please Artist series.  This collaboration pushed Eye Globe to its own kind of rock stardom. As a collector it was immensely satisfying   to escort this amazing piece from obscurity to fame.