Rei Kawakubo/Comme des Garçons: Art of the In-Between

The Arrival

Rei Kawakubo's exhibit at the Metropolitan Museum of Art includes categories like Then/Now, Model/Multiple, and Self/Other.

According to Andrew Bolton, Rei Kawakubo loves a puzzle. In an interview, she once compared her work to Zen koans—the unsolvable riddles Buddhist teachers present to their students. “You’re not meant to decipher koans,” Bolton explains. “The idea is that you finally realize they’re nonsensical and you realize the limitations of your intellect. Then you free your mind, and by freeing your mind, you get to another point.” He pauses. “It’s amazing. And that’s basically what Rei’s work is about, Zen koans.”