McQueen and polarity

Entering the darkly lit Savage Beauty exhibition, I was overcome with an oppressive feeling of unease, mixed with airy admiration. Cocktails of emotion like this are the centrepiece of the V&A Alexander McQueen show, with binaries of good and evil, dreams and nightmares, tame and savage running throughout his work. From delicate embellished flowers to dramatic gothic drapes of fabric, his pieces flirt with the poles on the vast spectrum of human experience. Beautifully-cut tailoring is finished off with a savage rip; womanly soft curves are cut into by brutal accessories framing their bodies; delicate feminine features are smeared with a defiant streak of blood-red lipstick. 

I felt a strange affinity to McQueen's clear display of suffering. I was stung when I at once recognised the agony in his designs as an embodiment of psychosis. The visual imagery was so powerful for me as it gave a cut and pattern to conditions such as anxiety and paranoia. It was this kind of uncomfortable reaction that McQueen sought to provoke, having once declared, "I don't want to do a cocktail party. I'd rather people left my shows and vomited." Sure enough I left with a violent swirl in my stomach, but above all I took away from the exhibition an awareness of the vitality of polarity in art.