A LOVE STORY PRESENTED BY GUCCI
It’s almost impossible that someone can sleep so soundly on a bed-shaped float while being gently rocked by the sea waves and under a sunflower yellow blanket, but Ariana Papademetropoulos has made it possible. This is just one of the many phantasms of what she creates. The overlapping imagery of her large-scale paintings - a horse in the living room, a face in a crystal, and a tear-filled eye as the flower’s bud - creates Hollywood-branded psychedelia that flirts with the illusion and energy of a coming-of-age movie, the one where the characters realize their worth and drive on the highway along the coast, wearing a drunk smile. No wonder she explores shifting realities and parallel worlds in a love story presented by Gucci, sealing her wonder-like touch.
Gucci has collaborated with the Los Angeles-based visual artist to create a limited-edition zine called “A Love Story Presented by Gucci”, the Maison’s gift for Valentine’s Day. The mini-publication winks at the minting, trade paperbacks sold in dollar stores with its low-tech graphic novella and leverages storytelling to cast the spell of love. On the front cover, Ariana herself appears as a tiny fairy nestled inside Gucci’s LOVE bag, shaped like a flower’s petals. She rests her folded arms on the edge of the bag to foreshadow her search for a love her own size, a reminder that love conquers all differences.
The zine imagines a rom-com, fantasy script that tells the story of two star-crossed lovers, a fairy and a giant who live in peace and harmony for a very long time. The fairy loves to read stories in his ears and lets him carry her in his purse for a stroll. Albeit a giant, he is great and strong, tender and sweet, and enjoys blowing giant bubbles for her to float on and see the world through her eyes. But, just like in the movies, all things come to an end.
