hiroshi sugimoto designs 'polaroid carres' for Hermès

hiroshi sugimoto has created a limited edition of 140 scarves for Hermès as part of the ‘couleurs de l’ombre’ exhibition — with each one a redesign of the famed square scarves known as carrés. the striking gradient aesthetic for each piece was informed by sugimoto’s interest in the complex prismatic system of polaroid photographs that captures the first rays of sunlight in the morning. this ten year long investigation generated an impressive spectrum of colors which sugimoto translated to silk for hermès series — proudly exhibiting hues from brilliant yellows and radiant reds to rich greens and blues. through the project sugimoto broke free from his well-known heavy color palette, wanting to quash the opinion that there are only seven colors and posing the question – ‘why must science always cut up the whole into little pieces when it identifies specific attributes?’.

image © tadzio, courtesy of Hermès

artistic director of Hermès, pierre-alexis dumas, personally selected 20 of sugimoto’s polaroid images to print for the range which debuted at museum der kulturen in basel switezerland. the work is shown at la verrière in brussels until the 29th of september and will be displayed at le forum on the 8th floor of the flagship gallery in ginza tokyo from november 14th to december 30th, 2012 in tokyo. see a video documenting the process here. 

the project was a ten year long investigation into the complex prismatic system of polaroid photographs
image courtesy of Hermès

image courtesy of Hermès

image courtesy of Hermès

image courtesy of Hermès

image courtesy of Hermès

image courtesy of Hermès

artistic director of Hermès, pierre-alexis dumas, personally selected 20 of sugimoto’s polaroid images to print
image courtesy Hermès

hiroshi sugimoto
image courtesy Hermès

the artist with his work
images © tadzio, courtesy of Hermès

a scarf – known as the carré – from the collection
image courtesy Hermès

the polaroid images were transferred onto the silk
image courtesy Hermès

the research produced various striking gradations of color
image courtesy Hermès

(main image) installation of the scarves for Hermès by hiroshi sugimoto as part of ‘couleurs de l’ombre’ exhibition at basel, switzerland | image © tadzio, courtesy of  Hermès