PROCESS with Judas Companion | Alexander McQueen Pre-Autumn/Winter 2022

Judas Companion is an artist based in London. The Judas Companion label aims to unite art and fashion through the creation of wearable structures. “Judas Companion is the alter ego I created in 2016. My work revolves around metamorphosis in the widest sense. I paint, I make masks, I photograph and film myself visualising processes of transformation. I turn my inner world outside and make emotional turmoil visible. Via wearing masks I express myself on a deeper level and develop work that derives directly from my subconscious. The importance of the human psyche has become essential to my practice. Via mask making, I create characters which I call hungry ghosts. These are reflecting suppressed emotions: the scream, which allows me to voice myself visually. The engagement with one’s own vulnerability is fascinating and terrifying at the same time. I aim to show the cracks of the persona I am (playing). I invented Judas Companion initially to protect myself from being vulnerable and injured by the toughness of society and people around me. Now I take it as a chance to do the opposite: to create work about the inner struggle. To connect with my own nature and comment on genesis, seduction and the fall of men, I photograph human bodies (mostly myself) naked and usually cover only their faces: the facial expressions are hidden by the grotesque, knitted, woollen, recycled, furry, plastic or ceramic masks. Through nudism I am able to address vulnerability and fragility as well as the beauty of the human body.” Rumours: ceramic, yarn, embroidery, concrete, Judas Companion, 2022. To illustrate the fact that creativity emerges from countless perspectives, Alexander McQueen invites a group of twelve artists to express their individual working practices inspired by the Autumn/Winter 2022 women’s pre-collection. Film by Masha Vasyukova Music by John Gosling #McQueenPROCESS #AlexanderMcQueen