Questions of Life and Death

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Cynthia Tello is a Los Angeles-based artist whose work is not defined by boundaries. There’s a sort of dark whimsy about her art, especially in her current collection, “Life and Death.” In it, she juxtaposes X-ray images of the human skeletal form with imagery of insects, birds, and plant life, essentially creating a stark yet moving tableau that comments on the universal cycles of life.
What makes it even more remarkable is that these pieces are presented on what Tello calls “movable canvases”. Working with French fashion designers Philipe Naouri and Alex Caugant, best known for their Antik Denim clothing line, she has created an exhibition of “wearable art” with the Life and Death line of clothing. It’s been embraced by rock and rap celebrities alike, and is available at upscale stores like Neiman-Marcus and Saks Fifth Avenue. We recently spoke with Ms. Tello about the Life and Death collection, her approach to her work and her plans for the future.

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How does the collaboration between you, and Philipe Naori and Alexander Caugant work? Are the pieces geared to your design, or vice versa? Or does your art work independently of the clothes?

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When we create a collection we always come up with a theme first, so that we feed off each other when choosing the color palettes, the fabrics, and our silhouettes. The artwork then enhances the original concept, almost like a symphony performed by different instruments to create a harmony. The L&D designs seem to me very organic in the way they fuse various elements of biology and botany into a cohesive whole. Is there a conscious effort on your part to make a social or environmental statement with these designs? Absolutely. As an artist it is almost inpossible not to react to our environment. I've always tried to evoke emotions from my work; with L&D, I got the freedom to explore the evolution of life and contrast it with the dark concepts that are associated with death. It is hard not to react to the social problems around us. We are very passionate about the ideas we put out there — we even want to incorporate environmentally friendly concepts into our upcoming collections. We feel it is our responsibility to raise awareness of our tendency as human beings to unconsciously destroy ourselves.

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Your mother worked as a Disney illustrator. Now while there is an eerie element to your art, it also has a sense of whimsy about it. How did growing up around animation influence your own sense of wonder?

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The influence comes in the quality of my linework. The way I sketch and layer my drawings stems from the early principles of animation passed down to me by my mother. Perspective, positive and negative, composition were second nature to me by the time I went to art school. My need to tell a story with each line also comes from these principles, almost like a dark fairytale, with a beginning, a middle, and an end.

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There's no denying that fashion, film, and music share a symbioticrelationship in the fabric of pop culture. From your perspective, at what point do they intersect, and how does that play into how we view ourselves as a society overall?

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There is no doubt about it. Society has the need to be constantly surrounded by beauty and entertainment. It is only the mixture of all three that can satisfy our very demanding needs. I like to remain an outsider, observing its transitions and absorbing what I can to inspire me. I like things that are unique and sometimes bizarre, dark, and almost ugly, which is not considered very popular. I find comfort in that.

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Right now the L&D line is available in upscale chains like Saks and Bloomingdales. But you're also expanding into online venues. In what ways do you see online marketing altering the accessibility of fashion design?

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I am a product of the Internet generation. I like the idea of making the line available to a variety of customers. It's important to give people the chance to see, learn more about the line so they can identify with it.

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I understand you see L&D as more of a lifestyle brand than a fashion line. Could you elaborate on how that will evolve and what that ultimately means?

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Our first step will be to make a sports line. It's something I've always wanted to do. We will start with the clothing and hopefully progress into sports gear like skateboards and snowboards. We all have different passions we would like to explore with Life and Death. Alex loves the idea of making home furnishings to give costumers an edgy and dark option to decorating interiors. We are also in the process of starting our accessory line, which i would like to expand into fragrance and beauty products and incorporate unusual colors and scents.

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Beyond L&D, what themes do you want to explore with your art in the future?

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I try to give a new approach to the artwork with every collection by exploring different types of media. Right now I am experimenting with photography for our holliday collection, and we have talked about perhaps doing limited hand-painted items for stores like Maxfield and h. Lorenzo, which used to sell my hand-painted vintage jackets from the Great China Wall. Eventually I would like to try to do costume design for a motion picture, to see my creations have life on the screen.