Ian Berry's installation in San Francisco

From the birthplace of Levi Strauss in Germany to the place he made his name

A new permanent installation in San Francisco. 

Where

San Francisco Flower Mart

https://www.newsfflowermart.com

Kilroy Innovation Center (temporary location) 

660 3rd St, San Francisco, CA 94107, United States

Credit: Lawrence Anderson Productions

 Intertwining a past to a future

20 meters x 80cm made in Recycled Denim

photos by Lawrence Anderson

A hanging trellis with flowers, leaves, vines, wisteria and chrysanthemums welcomes visitors, but it is no ordinary flora but a dense structure that blooms in blue, indigo blue. Each piece cut from jeans and denim. 

Cascading high across the wide-paned windows as a floral curtain, this piece is a solemn and bold reminder of the industrial history of the United States. The denim from this piece was sourced from the last denim mill in the United States, Cone Denim’s, White Oak in Greensboro, North Carolina. 

This piece was commissioned for the Kilroy Realty for the Kilroy Innovation Center to pay homage to the blue-collar jobs being preserved by the new San Francisco Flower Mart as well as portray the sustainable credentials and support Kilroy’s commitment to sustainability and art within its developments.

Credit: Lawrence Anderson Productions

click here to see a gallery of images from the San Francisco Flower Mart

Denim has been Ian Berry’s medium for over 15 years and one thing he loves the most about it, is the history though time and its symbolism but also its origins. Representing the Flower Mart in the material famed in the city dating back to the 1870s and the official fabric of California will show that the great new building respects and embraces the city’s heritage.

Of course, it was the immigrant to America, Leob Strauss who emigrated from Buttenheim in Germany to become Levi Strauss and make the garment what it is today. Ian Berry is currently exhibiting in the birth home of Levi in Bavaria starting a tour of his work that takes in many cities across the world. 

Credit: Steelblue, LLC

The democratic nature of this famed material is also a mark of this project’s preservation of blue-collared jobs and a bridge between the old and the new in this innovation. And of course, denim transcends all boundaries all over the world and ever since the 1800’s the Flower Mart has been ethnically diverse, and this history should be celebrated. 

While the city was built on gold and ‘white gold’ turned to jeans, now San Francisco is a world leader in technological innovation as a key industry as other industries waned. The true leaders know that we have to lead a sustainable future, and Kilroy is at the forefront of this and put simply the up cycled nature of this installation of worn and scraps of denim that pays tribute to its past and builds for a greener future.

Tonello 

Blue is also green with Ian’s friend’s at Tonello in Italy, an international leader in the production of garment treatment technologies, developing innovative equipment for the apparel industry. Ian has been working with Tonello for four years now since the Secret Garden in the CMA in New York and their relationship has flourished to make numerous other installations. In Ian’s work normally everything is just worn jeans and scissors, whereas the large-scale installations he turns to Tonello. 

With the installation for the new San Francisco Flower Mart, Tonello helped was (with ozone) dozens upon dozens of yards of the Cone denim and laser cut the vines to make the Trellis. Ian travelled to Italy to work with the specialist team in the region also famed for its denim industry 

Ian working with the Lazer Blade at Tonello

 Alice Tonello, head of marketing and R&D said

"Having the opportunity to work with Ian Berry is always amazing. We are using denim in a different and inspiring way, and it's something that in the industry usually doesn't happen.

When he asked us about this new project, we were so happy and so proud to be part of it. The installation in the San Francisco Flower Mart is an example of how collaborations and friendships can lead to unexpected and surprising results as well as portraying a message in a beautiful way."

Ian Berry saw the San Francisco links to the denim history at the Levi Strauss archive with Tracey Panek.

Credit: Lawrence Anderson Productions

 Tracey Panek, Levi Strauss & Co. Historian said

“Since the birth of blue jeans by Levi Strauss & Co.in 1873, denim and Levi’s® have been a foundational part of San Francisco’s history, culture, and political landscape. Denim constituted the working clothes for the builders who erected the city and the engineers who raised its bridges; it was the canvas of self-expression for hippies, the uniform for gay activists, and the business attire of today’s entrepreneurs. Denim will continue to be the common thread in San Francisco’s future fabric and that's why it is great to see it acknowledged in this amazing installation by Ian Berry.”

Kilroy Realty Corporation

Kilroy Realty Corporation

San Francisco Flower Mart

The origins of the San Francisco Flower Mart go back to the late 1800s when flower growers brought their product to Lotta’s Fountain in downtown San Francisco to sell to local flower shops. The need for a centrally-located space to bring together the ethnically-diverse groups of flower growers led to the opening of a market at 5th and Howard Streets in 1924.

In September 1956, the grand opening of the current San Francisco Terminal marked the establishment of an industry icon. As it has for more than a century, the San Francisco Flower Mart continues to witness the evolution of one of America’s greatest cities. Today, there are over 60 wholesalers and purveyors of cut flowers, potted plants, and floral supplies that service the floral industry of the Bay Area and beyond. 

Credit: Lawrence Anderson Productions

As the city evolves, the San Francisco Flower Mart Project will keep these timeless businesses in operation.  After almost 65 years at 6th and Brannan without any major renovations or updates, Kilroy Realty Corporation is planning to build the Flower Market a brand new, efficient, and environmentally sustainable wholesale marketplace at 901 16th Street in San Francisco’s historic Potrero Hill neighborhood.

 As Central SoMa prepares for major growth and reshaping into a vibrant, transit-oriented neighborhood, Kilroy will lead the historic San Francisco Flower Mart site at 6th and Brannan into its new role as the focal point of a dynamic, mixed-use space that offers a unique take on the urban lifestyle.

Kilroy Realty Corporation

Once the development is complete, the installation will move in from the Kilroy Innovation Center. More information about San Francisco Flower Mart may be found online at www.newsfflowermart.com. 

Ian Berry in New York Museum show

Ian Berry at the Children's Museum of Arts in New York

We have just returned to London after a busy December in the States. Ian had shows at Miami Basel and then he was in New York to open his Secret Garden Installation at the Children's Museum of the Arts in Manhattan.

Over many days Ian and a team of helpers installed this incredible Secret Garden installation at the Chelsea based Museum. The museum that has served hundreds of thousands of Children and has the mission 'to introduce children and their families to the transformative power of the arts by providing opportunities to make art side-by-side with working artists.'

And over the years, Ian has had a similar mission. He has worked with schools to do projects, and teachers write to him when they do lessons on him. He enjoys getting mails from kids who have made work inspired by him.

'I remember growing up in the north of England, I don't really remember getting much inspiration of artists working. Yes, they are there, but I didnt see it. It was more the 'local artist' normally retired amatuer you'd come across. But one day my dad took me to David Hockney's Saltaire at about 12 or 13 and it was so inspiring seeing someone from the same area I was from doing so well.' 

Ian says he wishes he could be young again to go to somewhere like the CMA. It is a truly amazing place for young minds, and their parents. There are teaching artists there with many different work rooms, for all ages up to 16. They can learn to work in many different ways, often inspired by the artwork on display - Ellan Harvey also shows alongside Ians work. We think it is important for children to interact with Arts, especially with school budgets tightening and the arts being one of the biggest to suffer.

'crazy when you think both our countries excel in creative fields and really lead the world. Yet, we are constantly told at school that arts are a hobby with visions of the starving artist.' Ian Says.

The installation that you can walk through, on top of a denim path is filled with various flowers and plants, from roses to cacti, wisteria to chrysanthemum all made out of jeans. You'll find denim tools and also a hare, peering through, unafraid of the children about to run through.

But the most impressive part is the trellis coming down from the ceiling. Hundreds of vines and leaves dangling, as if taking over the museum. Part looking like a magical urban secret garden, part looking like the place has been abandoned and left for the nature to take over.  The flowers hanging and the butterflies lead to an almost Alice in Wonderland fantasy world that the kids and parents alike have been amazed by. 

The installation for the Bridge Project was inspired by thinking of childhood. Immediately Ian thought of playing outside at his Yorkshire hometown. He feels now children play less outside and interact and look less at the nature around. Kids are obsessed with tech with ipads and instant gratification and the games played are not with balls and dirty knees but with thumbs the only strength needed with video consoles.

'Sadly too I also feel that with the stresses of life parents even spend less time with their kids, even if they are with them, they may be distracted by their phones and the constant fear of missing something.'

'I only wonder what this may do to tiny minds seeing people always glued to their phones and screens'

He had noticed in the past that when recreating familiar scenes people took for granted, out of a material so common, people saw it differently and revalued it. He would love for the parent and child to walk through together so that when they do go through parks and gardens they will look at them more closely.

'I also thought that while in many other way New York would be one of the most inspiring cities for a child to live in, many kids wouldn't have gardens. Yes, there are places to go and famous parks with amazing open space and the High Line too, but perhaps it may inspire parents to find a little secret garden near to them'

In a interesting opening to the garden, Ian shows a cotton plant and explains that this is where the jeans we wear first comes from. Not bad going from plants to pants, to plants again.

Ian will return in April 2018 to help to take some classes based on his work.

We'd also like to place on record the thanks to the museum, Tonello, Cone denim, NYC factory and Christine Rucci for all the help in the making of the Secret Garden along with dozens of other assistants.

The installation is up until April.

Children's Museum of the Arts

103 Charlton St. NYC 212.274.0986

Get directions

Ian Berry in GQ in Spain and Italy September issue

GQ have been good to Ian over the years, first featuring him online as far back as 2013 in South Africa, then Brazil in 2014. Last year he was printed in GQ GB and here in both Italia and España. 

In the Italian issue it was reported by Paola Montanaro (translated from Italian)

The art of Ian Berry transforming jeans into masterpieces

His creations have a palette that exploits all the nuances of denim, his canvases tell stories of everyday life, or travels started a while ago. Like that of Pepe Jeans London, which has supported the art of the young English artist immediately.

Use denim as it is painting, to transform it into matter through which tell stories of everyday life. Part of this is the work of the young English artist Ian Berry, who has entered the world chart of 30 top artists under thirty years. His meticulous work consists in transforming denim artwork by exploiting all the many shades of jeans cloth to create his own palette of colors, and to transform ordinary scenes in masterpieces. As he tells himself: "The starting point is to find an interesting scene on which to build and tell a story. It could be someone sitting in a laundry room, a single girl in a bar ... any reality or situation, even the most banal, which will then turn into something very special. "

It's normal that his creativity and originality did not go unnoticed in the eyes of a brand that shares his values nd has his own denim in the heart: Pepe Jeans London. Between the artist and the brand was born a very high level synergy that led the London brand to donate their denim to use for his works of art. In addition to supporting Berry's work, the brand has also decided to host Berry's canvases in its stores around the world. In particular at the opening of the Regent Street shop, the artist created an ad hoc opera: a journey into the history of Pepe Jeans from origins at Portobello Road, where the brand was born in 1973.

And some quotes from España

“Throughout the history of art, many of its protagonists have been meant to take their obsessions to the last consequences .... In the 21st century, we continue to admire artists who turn their conceptual and material concerns into the vertebral axes of their Works, our latest discovery Ian Berry.”

ending with - Ian Berry, a young talent who has made denim a powerful artifact to convey emotions.