OFF THE PEDESTAL — HARLEQUINA 1763/2027 Her pose once suggested movement. In 2027, she completes ...OFF THE PEDESTAL — HARLEQUINA 1763/2027 Her pose once suggested movement. In 2027, she completes ...
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Becca Collier
• Sep 7
OFF THE PEDESTAL — HARLEQUINA 1763/2027
Her pose once suggested movement. In 2027, she completes it.
For the FLORA Museum Challenge, I chose Harlequina, a ca. 1763 hard-paste porcelain figure modeled by Franz Anton Bustelli for the Nymphenburg Porcelain Manufactory.
What stopped me was not only the diamond-patterned costume, but the body language: the raised wrist, tilted head, folding fan, and elegant S-curve that already feels like a dance paused in the middle of a gesture.
I reimagined her as a human-scale 2027 couture performer:
• Painted diamonds became articulated glazed porcelain tesserae • The molded white skirt became translucent organza • The painted botanical border became silk and small porcelain petals • The folding fan became smoked glass
In FLORA, I began with four Open Access views of the original object and explored three distinct material directions: Articulated Porcelain, Porcelain Bloom, and Smoked Glass Harlequin.
The final design combines the strongest elements of each: the ceramic structure of the first study, the botanical restraint of the second, and the darker museum atmosphere of the third.
The final moment completes Bustelli’s implied movement. Harlequina lowers her hand, steps off the porcelain plinth, and walks forward.
Original artwork — The Met: https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/206045
Full FLORA canvas: https://app.flora.ai/projects/ns710a3rqyzhys5hv7z67rjzyd8dsy5p Instagram Reel: https://www.instagram.com/reel/DdAQCU2BypQ/ Created and iterated in FLORA.
#FLORAMuseum #FLORAMuseumChallenge #ArtDirection #DigitalCouture
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Diego's avatar
Diego Sánchez
• Sep 8
That opening line, her pose once suggested movement and in 2027 she completes it, is such a good hook, it does more work than most artist statements twice its length. Was that the seed the whole concept grew from, or did it come after you'd worked out how she'd move?
Becca's avatar
Becca Collier
• Sep 8
Thank you, Diego! The movement came first. I kept coming back to her raised wrist and the curve of her body. She already looked like she had been caught in the middle of a movement, almost waiting to finish it. Once I imagined her stepping off the pedestal and onto a 2027 runway, that line captured the whole concept.
Diego's avatar
Diego Sánchez
• Sep 8
The pedestal to runway jump makes sense once you say it, a piece that already reads as mid-movement basically wants somewhere to walk. Genuinely curious, does the 1763 costume research come first and the pose gets found within those constraints, or the other way around?
Becca's avatar
Becca Collier
• Sep 9
It was actually the fashion idea first. I went through the archive knowing I wanted to turn something, maybe a bowl, painting, sculpture, or surface pattern, into a modern runway piece. Harlequina stood out because she looked beautiful but frozen right in the middle of a...
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