LP9: Your Artist and Written Proposal

  The artist that I chose is Klaus Nomi, who is a German singer or countertenor, once popular in the 20th century. I chose this artist because of his uniqueness and weirdness. I heard his name from my friend who was studying him in her studio/seminar class. I was not familiar with his name, but after she showed me a few images of him, I was strongly attracted to him. I even asked my friend if I could do him as my inspiration, and she replied yes since we both wanted more people to notice him and his works.

  My design is inspired by the outstanding stage looks of Klaus Nomi; he always wears this large plastic triangle shaped tux. Most of his outfits are black and white. Thus the only color scheme for my designs is black and white as well. His dramatic stage performance seems clown-like for people. Therefore I designed something similar to what I had understood him as a person. In my opinion, he is a complete weirdo, his outfits, his performances, his high pitched voice, which made him a unique person, his style is one of a kind and unreplaceable. His eye-catching style made others look at him differently. He wears this giant plastic tux frequently in his performance; this inspired me to create the metal piece design. I am going to use wires to construct this. This part of the outfit is going to look bulky and large. It may seem like arrows being shot toward the body, just like words, I think Kalus Nomi might receive a lot of criticism when he was alive and after his death, since he died of aids, and he is homosexual. The piece of metal wearable can seem like something that is hurting the body, but it may also be protected since it is durable and heavy.

Moreover, underneath the metal piece, there is a sleeveless top; it is also going to be stiff and dramatic. The back of the top is more revealing than the front since in Klaus Nomi’s life; he did not reveal a lot of his flesh or body to the audience; he is mostly covered up. However, he died of aids, which seems a bit ironic. Furthermore, for the bottom piece, I decided to design a skirt, since, in his outfits, he does not usually wear pants, since the giant tux covers up the upper part and lower upper part of his body.

 

Klaus Nomi in his signature stage performance clothing: 

The Cold Song: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uf6ViwumljY

                   

This piece was performed in 1981 by Klaus Nomi. The overall atmosphere os this stage performance seems sad and dark. Since the lyric of the song appears depressing and mysterious, hence making the whole color scheme much colder. The lighting is blue, which matches the song’s intention of being cold. Moreover, the light only focuses on Klaus Nomi, although there are a female and a male model standing stiffly in front of him, and sometimes moves their arms mechanically and emotionlessly. Everyone during this performance has not emotions; they are not sad or happy. Moreover, for his outfit, he is still wearing his signature outfit, the triangle plastic tux, he is also wearing a PVC material coat, which adds this futuristic feeling of the performance.

The Nomi Song: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iNahvGXVWl0

     

The Nomi Song was performed at the Frech TV in 1982. At the beginning of the performance, the camera shows a table of adults viewing the performance like a family. The setting of this performance involves more emotion than The cold song. The music is more lively in this piece, Although Klaus Nomi dances in this video, he mostly just waves his hands like robots just as in most of his performances. Moreover, the two dancers are still with him in this performance; they are wearing what seemed like black ballet dresses. Since this song is more cheerful, Klaus Nomi has more engagements with them, toward the end, they stood behind Klaus Nomi and collaborate on a dance, they start to wiggle their arms, but they still look like robots. Furthermore, the lyric of the song is sad. However, he performed it in a much more lively way, but when you are paying close attention to what he is singing, you can understand how sad he is.

Total Eclipse: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HmLk2vSXXtk

 

Klaus Nomi performed Total Eclipse in a live Concert at New York City 1981. The song is in the genre of rock style, he tries varies genres of music in his life. However, he only sings in an opera voice, high pitched voice. This time, he is not performing with only two dancers, there is a band working with him altogether. Surprisingly his voice matches quite well with the rock band. Klaus Nomi is more passionate about performing this piece, the lyric of the song is also not sad, which made this piece more lively and energetic. Moreover, Klaus Nomi still has two dancers with him, but this time they are both black women and wearing a black bodysuit, and they engaged the most out of the three pieces.