Bart Hess (born January 2, 1984) is a Dutch designer that created slime art used in the music video for "Born This Way". Hess also created a slime dress worn by Gaga in the Born This Way album photoshoot by Nick Knight.
Liquified Research
"Slime" dress
Bart Hess designed a "slime" dress [in Dutch "slijmjurk"] for Lady Gaga from 15 kilograms of purple-orange slime. Lady Gaga asked Hess to make the dress following his work for Vogue magazine (shot by Nick Knight in 2010, look below). Gaga told Bart to create slime that refers to something like aliens and birth. To find the right color and texture Bart Hess mixed materials from the supermarket, do-it-yourself store and toy stores. Then he shipped the homemade slime from his studio in Eindhoven (Netherlands) to London.
On his website, Bart Hess wrote about the "slime" dress he created for Lady Gaga as a part of his Liquified research:
- "Hess is renowned for his fascination with reinventing the depiction of the body through the veil of technological advancement. This fascination took shape in his research series named Liquified. The material research emerged partly after a desire to use the Liquify filter in Photoshop, where the body appears to melt into a physical reality.
Hess developed a wide range of slime-like substances, varying in color and thickness. The materials were draped on a model creating semitransparent blobs and draperies that blur the line between material and skin. Hess captured his new, liquid body in a series of images and performances which got noticed by photographer Nick Knight who shot the material for the album cover of Lady Gaga’s Born This Way."
About working with Gaga on the set of photoshoot by Nick Knight Bart Hess wrote:
| “ | The shoot was a performance on it's own where I draped the slime over a hat Lady Gaga was wearing. The beautiful thing about it was that each image was a just a fraction of a second because the material was constantly evolving. It was truly magical when someone on set put a van on to create movement in her hair, instead a giant slime bubble appeared from her armpit. Both the dynamic materials and way of working made the project so exciting for me. | ” |
—Bart Hess | ||
In a video released by Dutch Profiles on October 10th, 2012, Bart Hess told about the idea and creation of the "slime" dress looking at Gaga's photo wearing it:
| “ | It began with the Lucy [McRae] and Bart [Hess] blog. Many stylists knew it, including Lady Gaga's. She asked me to come up with something for the new album. Born This Way, it was called. I was given some references, such as 'alien' and 'birth'. That was the reason I started investigating slime. We draped slime over a hat. What results in draperies. It only stays in existence for the fraction of a second. But I think you really sense the tautness of the material. | ” |
—Bart Hess on Dutch Profiles | ||
In an interview with i-D magazine in December 2018, when asked "Where did the idea for Lady Gaga’s slime dress come from?" Bart Hess answered:
| “ | I’m always exploring materials. If I don’t have clients I’m working with or jobs, I just like to dive into a material. I have a very big weird archive of these tests at my studio that I don’t really know what to do with them. I have a quite nice chewing gum, where I could blow up the skin really big. I didn’t really know what to do with it. When Gaga’s team asked me to create something for her Born This Way album, they had some references to Alien the film. It made sense for using the chewing gum, but the chewing gum became slime because it was even nicer. The process was like becoming the expert of slime. For a few weeks, I tried everything. | ” |
—Bart Hess on i-D | ||
In an interview with Love magazine in March 2020, when asked "What has been the biggest pinch me moment in your career so far?" Bart Hess answered revealing a few details about working with Gaga:
| “ | Working with Lady Gaga was the biggest pinch me moment of my career. The moment she walked onto the set, she shaked my hand and said: I really like your work. That moment felt like it was possibly a dream. Quite quickly after everything felt quite ‘normal’ even though I was pouring litres of slime over her. | ” |
—Bart Hess on Love | ||
![[1] Reference](/wiki/File:Bart_Hess_-_%27%27Liquified%27%27_research_(12-8-10)_%27slime%27_outfit_001.jpg "Bart Hess - ''Liquified'' research (12-8-10) 'slime' outfit 001.jpg (221 KB)")
_%27slime%27_outfit_002.jpg "Bart Hess - ''Liquified'' research (12-8-10) 'slime' outfit 002.jpg (54 KB)")
- "Liquified" research in Eindhoven on December 8th, 2010. Shot by Nick Knight.