Skincare show

Melbourne – Aesop has presented a new performance piece in its shop windows that explored the ritual of skincare.

• Each performance took place for 90 minutes twice a day
• The installation marked the launch of Aesop’s latest antioxidant moisturiser

Derma, devised by Aesop’s creative team headed by Marsha Meredith, was made up of four performers, each enacting a traditional craft, representing the rituals important for caring for skin.

The performers, who worked with artist Iván Sikic during rehearsals, played the roles of tailor, appraiser, conservator and curator, who ‘fortify’ a sheet of fabric, a metaphor for the company’s product range of skincare products.

The slow and methodical performance was also accompanied by a soundscape, made from a combination of recorded bodily functions and noises from within the shop windows, played out over speakers to passers-by.

‘Derma functioned as a mesmerising, large-scale meditation on the complexities of the unique skin we inherit, with the performance underscoring the many factors that contribute to its health,’ says Carolyn Jackson, Aesop’s international visual merchandising manager.