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The Arts Intel Report

A Cultural Compass
For the World Traveler
A Cultural Compass
For the World Traveler

Be Yourself, Everyone Else is Already Taken

Mar 17 – June 26, 2022
Jordan Well, Coventry CV1 5QP, United Kingdom

The artist, activist, and designer Daniel Lismore has been dubbed “England’s most eccentric dresser”—and with good reason. He believes dressing is an art form and leaves the house in extraordinary ensembles. Sometimes it’s haute couture with ethnic jewelry, sometimes it’s armor and shields. In 2012, Lismore became creative director for the luxury label Sorapol, and has since dressed the likes of Nicki Minaj, Mariah Carey, Naomi Campbell, and Cara Delevingne. For this show, he turns his gaze on the Terracotta Army, the thousands of once buried sculptures that represent the funerary army of Qin She Huang, China’s first emperor. Lismore creates versions of the soldiers that are far more colorful and inventive. One dons a Campbell’s soup can as a hat, another is covered in plumage. This eye-popping show has been touring the world since 2016. —Elena Clavarino

Image from Daniel Lismore’s book “Be Yourself, Everyone Else is Already Taken.” Photo: Colin Douglas Gray/SCAD.