Transitory Art and Fashion in Motion: The Physical Emotion of Rodin and Balmain

Auguste Rodin, perhaps the most prolific modern French sculptor, was a master of emotional form. He had an unmatched ability  to convey anguish, sensuality, and the tire of existence with chipped and scathed stone and cast metals. Rodin understood the weight of our bones, the tension of our muscles, and the movement of our bodies to be the most powerful expression of our love and our pain. 

Taking influence from painters before him, Rodin used texture and figure, replacing the Impressionists' color and shadow, to sculpt the transitory nature of ourselves. Man Walking is a momentary study of motion and gravity; of the shifting of weight; of the progression of ourselves as our bodies inhabitant.

It is without hesitation that we can look at fashion as exploring the transitory nature of ourselves and our bodes as well. (Which isn't to automatically conclude that fashion designers and Rodin have similar intent, vision, or understanding.) 

The Fall 2009 Balmain collection has given to us an undeniable contrast of structure and fluidity. Much like the texture and form of Man Walking, the heavy, rigid shoulder and ever-moving silhouette below the waist seen on the Balmain runways at fashion week imply the transitional, unresting nature of our bodies as we move through time and space. In both, it's difficult, if not impossible, to separate the passage of the physical and the evolution of the emotional. 

Rodin and Balmain force us to consider -- where does muscle tension end and stress begin? Is there a difference between feeling down and feeling the pull of gravity? How can we distinguish the weight of ourselves from the weight of our emotions? And perhaps most importantly, does it matter?