Artist Torkwase Dyson was presented with a unique opportunity when she was asked to design the exhibition space for The Metropolitan Museum of Art’s upcoming Costume Institute show, “Superfine: Tailoring Black Style.” Despite having no previous experience with the department or fashion in general, Dyson, a Chicago native and Southern-raised painter, sculptor, and theorist, eagerly accepted the challenge.
“I don’t have a big personal history with fashion,” Dyson admits during our conversation. “But I learned a lot working on this exhibition.”
Having never seen a Costume Institute exhibition before, Dyson decided to familiarize herself with the scale and scope by taking a guided tour of the previous year’s show, “Sleeping Beauties: Reawakening Fashion.” Additionally, co-curator Monica Miller provided Dyson with a copy of her book, “Slaves to Fashion: Black Dandyism and the Styling of Black Diasporic Identity,” which served as the scholarly and conceptual foundation for “Superfine.” This experience ignited a newfound artistic inspiration within Dyson.
“It opened up a door for ambition that I had not recognized in the work until that moment,” Dyson reflects. “Walking into ‘Sleeping Beauties’ was like entering another world. The intricacy of it was inspiring. It made me think about what embodied experience could look like within my own sculptural language.”
Despite her lack of experience in exhibition design, Dyson’s work has always delved into space, architecture, and Black liberation, often showcased at institutions such as the Whitney Museum and Pace Gallery. The “Superfine” commission provided her with the opportunity to transform a 10,000-square-foot gallery into a dynamic space that would engage with centuries of Black self-fashioning.
Rather than focusing on specific garments, Dyson chose to center her design around the concept of framing Black life. This led her to develop “hyper shapes,” modular forms that could accommodate various objects and garments of unknown scale while maintaining mobility, agility, and presence within the space.
“Some shapes think about volume, others about open air or enclosure,” Dyson explains. “It was important that each structure could serve the curators’ needs but also tell a story on its own.”
With her unique perspective and artistic vision, Dyson’s contribution to “Superfine: Tailoring Black Style” promises to be a visually stunning and thought-provoking experience for visitors to The Metropolitan Museum of Art.
