From a distance they look benign enough. In fact, since the photographs are relatively dark, it is hard to distinguish what the images are. But as you walk closer, what you see are these detached faces with unfocused expressions, either looking "internally" or out onto some distant horizon.
Since the glass that covers these posters reflects light and the surrounding objects, I got some interesting juxtapositions. For example: the top photo elongates the face and upward focus through the reflection of the highrise building. The middle photo which looks like the face is marked with tribal stripes (part of the actual photo) has the Canadian flags fluttering beneath the giant face. And the third appears to be looking sleepily (and creepily) into the superimposed buildings.
Each is advertising an eyeshadow color by Tom Ford for a new line called "Extreme" with the tag: "Be Bold and Shine With Melted Metals."
Top: Silver
Middle: Sapphire Blue
Bottom: Gold
Extreme for what? Towards what?
This is the now frequent, ambiguously worded language that is used to present nefarious elements into ordinary, everyday life. We have it in films like A Wrinkle in Time (which passes itself off as a children's fantasy tale), television series such as Lucifer, and dark and macabre streetwear highlighted with tattoos and metallic eyeshadow from cheap knock-offs of Tom Ford's metalica makeup.
And Ford is not to be outdone in the film department either, where he has directed two "luciferan" films: Nocturnal Animals and A Single Man.
And where else but in film does he have carte blanche to project transitions of man to beast to Lucifer into a Hadean world and onto the giant silver screens, using his transferable skills as fashion's extreme creative director?
Promotional Posters Outside Holt Renfrew, at Square One Mississauga
For: Tom Ford's Spring/Summer 2018 collection "Extreme"
[Photos By: KPA]
And this s not Ford's foray into the netherworld, as I wrote here.