Sasha Marie Barnard lights up The Power of Art
She’s a little bit Jane Fonda, a little bit Alexander McQueen. She’s an über-organized, no-holds-barred design visionary, improbably trained in geospatial regimes and climatology, but inherently gifted in the art of haute couture.
She’s Sasha Marie Barnard, and her latest creations will hit the runway Friday night as part of the 6th Annual Power of Art Show at the AES Power Plant in Redondo Beach.
Barnard’s CIGLINE© collection comprises eight looks – six womenswear and two menswear – all painstakingly handcrafted from cigarette packs, cartons and advertisements, accumulated by the artist over the past four years. It was a labor of love… and heartbreak. A longtime smoker, despite many attempts at quitting, Barnard’s work on the CIGLINE© pieces forced her to face her inner demons.
“The feelings…and the struggles I had during the time I was making the dresses were unexpected because I was faced really with my own mortality,” she says.
Barnard’s tobacco-fueled fashion creations feature packaging from Marlboro, Pall Mall, Camel, and American Spirit cigarettes, as well as Copenhagen snuff cans. Although she regretfully admits to having smoked most of the dresses herself, many of the packs were contributed by smoker friends and all of the Copenhagen snuff cans represent chewing tobacco consumed by her father.
For the smokers who contributed empty packs to the project, seeing the visual manifestations of their nicotine addictions was a real eye-opener. Barnard’s mother was brought to tears by the Copenhagen snuff can creation her husband’s habit yielded, calling it a “death dress.”
Barnard’s pieces take inspiration from a broad range of cultural contexts and eras, referencing both her training in geography and the universality of her message about the nature of addiction. Her models, too, represent a diverse range of backgrounds, in an attempt to “try to reach worldwide.” Ultimately, Barnard hopes to see the CIGLINE© go on tour, enhancing its impact and bringing awareness to both Barnard’s art and its very poignant, personal message. ER
