Daniel Lismore’s Be Yourself, Everyone Else is Already Taken review: ‘Sensational’

Words: Jamie Tabberer; pictures: Provided (taken by Colin Douglas Gray)

“Is it important to have lovely things around you?”

“YES.”

So says Patsy Stone when a Hello! interviewer mistakes her for Sharon Stone in Absolutely Fabulous. It’s a conviction that rings true at Daniel Lismore’s exhibit Be Yourself, Everyone Else is Already Taken. It features 7,000 of the artist/designer’s personal trinkets and treasures, from the precious and ornate to the pop culture-tastic. Among them: an Ab Fab-branded Diet Coke bottle (want) and old issues of Attitude. (Self-congratulating? Us?)

Loveliest of all are the personal artefacts from Lismore’s childhood: the twinkle-eyed family photographs, the schoolwork. Then, the gig tickets (Blondie, Björk) and flash photographs of young adulthood. In one, Lismore can be seen partying with Stephen Fry and Kesha. Imagine!

The subject of stardust, which is sprinkled throughout the exhibit, came up again at today’s press launch at Coventry’s Herbert Art Gallery and Museum, where Attitude met Lismore and asked after his dream dinner party guests. (Like the fictional Hello! journo, we ask the hard questions.)

His answer? “Patsy, Patrick Stewart, Björk, Naomi Campbell, Andy Warhol.” At least one is already a close friend, we discovered, as Lismore regaled us with a story about him gate-crashing Leonardo DiCaprio’s home with Campbell. (“‘This house is yours for the next week or two!'” the generous Titanic actor apparently told him.)

Daniel Lismore at yesterday’s press launch (Picture: Supplied/Fabio De Paola/PA Wire)

Not that there’s a hint of arrogance when he tells the story, mind you – it’s by-the-by when you’re fashion royalty, and count Vivienne Westwood and British Vogue editor Edward Enninful as fans. If anything, the calmly-spoken Lismore has a sober earthiness about him – a pleasing contrast to the high gloss and theatre of today’s immaculately made-up face and lilac chiffon/chainmail headdress ensemble.

“You can always be you inside”

Evidently he hasn’t forgotten his roots: he’s chosen his hometown for the UK debut of an exhibit that’s already visited Miami, Reykjavik, and more. Still, it was upon moving to London that his work went stratospheric.

“If you can get away, do that,” is Lismore’s advice for young LGBTQs in small towns and remote places who feel trapped or contained by their surroundings. “It’s so hard saying who you are sometimes. You never know how people are going to react, especially parents. People are scared. I was. I shouldn’t have been, but I was. But if [you can’t get out], you can always be you inside.”

Speaking of which, the show’s aforementioned intro is like entering a door into a young Lismore’s mind, and makes the epic installation that follows more accessible. ‘An Army of My Life’ is exactly that: a small militia of 50 3D figures, each recreations of the self-confessed “living sculpture” himself; all standing tall at 6’4 and dressed to the nines in Lismore’s often movingly ostentatious designs.

How to describe his style? Adjectives fall short, so we’ll try this: imagine Campbell, Boy George and Mariah Carey formed a three-parent family and raised a child, and gave him the unbridled confidence, rather than the cues, to find his own vision and tell them what to wear. That’s sort of what happened, anyway: Lismore’s styled all three, and a jacket he made for the latter is part of the show.

To labour the point, though: however much Lismore’s grand, regal work references other people’s – including Andy Warhol’s, literally – it is categorically not derivative of anyone’s. In fact, his point of view is so unique, so consistent and so powerful that a single deviation – a sexy look that I believe is called ‘The “Hellish” Nurse’ – stands out like a sore but fascinating thumb. This was one of the costumes he designed for The English National Opera’s The Mask of Orpheus: all breathtakingly elaborate and luxuriously colourful.

Each creation rewards closer scrutiny: one figure wears tiny cheese graters for earrings; another dons a Mickey Mouse glove; another a weathered-looking Hermès bag. (The kind Sex and the City‘s Samantha wanted, but in a different colour). There are endorsements of public figures like The Queen and Julian Assange, while provocative statements abound: including on climate change, plus the scientifically-debunked practise of LGBTQ conversion therapy, which seeks to change a person’s sexuality and/or gender identity.

If fame and politics collide in his work, they do too when Attitude asks for his message to LGBTQs and allies who aren’t engaged in the fight for equality.

“I’ve spoken to loads of celebrities who are all talk [in private] but scared to talk about trans people [in public],” he says. “I think they’re cowards, to be honest. They say: ‘Oh, we can’t deal with the hate.’ Some people, fine. I know hate can be horrible. You can be targeted and harassed online like I am, and many of my other friends who speak out. 

“But I would just say, the more people who speak out, the better. We have to. It’s not acceptable that they’re quiet.”

Indeed, if Be Yourself illustrates anything, it’s the staggering power and beauty of leaning fully into your truth. An unmissable (and free!) show.

For more information, visit the Herbert Art Gallery and Museum website.