Gird your loins dear reader because this article is not about your run-of-the-mill artist to say the least! Filip Custic is a multidisciplinary creative who has worked with brands such as Opening Ceremony, VOGUE, Balmain for H&M, Palomo Spain and Gucci. His aesthetic is surreal and artistic, while also rational and scientific. One quick look at his unconventional work and you’ll know why you should be keeping Filip Custic on your radar.
Custic moved between Croatia and the Canary Islands until the age of 18, when he moved to Madrid. He doesn’t consider himself an “artist” per se, due to the historical weight that comes loaded with such a word. Instead, he considers himself a “virtual painter”. He creates installations with models, objects and scenery to convey his message. He then combines the photography medium with heavy editing in Photoshop. His art is like a contemporary approach to surrealism. Indeed, Custic explains that some of his biggest influences are the Dadaists and Surrealists of yore: Salvador Dalí, Magritte and Duchamp.
For Palomo Spain’s Spring / Summer ‘18 campaign, Custic staged an entire shoot in an imaginary hotel. These incredible images are loaded with symbolism and edited so that each shot looks like some type of modern renaissance painting. Palomo Spain has been gaining some major acclamation in the fashion world lately, and in case you’ve been sleeping on them, they’re the ones who dressed Beyoncé for the picture with her new born twins. And this campaign is definitely not your ordinary fashion shoot, especially seeing as some of the models aren’t even wearing clothes? Either way, the Hotel Palomo is a sight to behold, and all I know is I’d like to stay in the suite, please.
Finding a space between art, fashion and science, Custic explores the concepts of gravity, irregularities, oddities and fragmentation. It’s all about getting access to one’s unconsciousness. Custic’s work evolves around pataphysics: the study of laws that regulate exceptions in the universe. It’s a science of imaginary solutions. This all might sound a little vague, trust me, I don’t quite get it either. But what I do know is that the result is incredibly mesmerising.
During previous years, Custic has mainly used the male body as his muse. But once he connected with Maria Forqué she spurred an interest in using the female figure as a source of inspiration. Or perhaps one should call it a collaboration. They consider themselves an “art and science duo” with the artist name “1por1”, which I, despite my non-existent Spanish skills, am able to translate to “1 for 1”. They consider each other a reflection of themselves. The duo’s latest project has been in collaboration with Gucci. Custic and Forqué have built a parallel universe of objects and ideas in which they are photographed, fabulously dressed in Gucci.
The Gucci collaboration is called Máscara Hiperrealista, which, thanks to Google Translate I do believe means “Hyperrealistic Mask”. And although these masks might not be all that realistic, they are nevertheless extremely appealing to the eye. Adorned with splotches of freckles and dermal piercings, the masks cover Custic and Forqué’s faces, only leaving their nude or Gucci clad bodies visible. It’s the type of art that poses so many questions, yet still achieves major aesthetic satisfaction.
