Exhibitions

CURRENT:

Wear When: Historical and Contemporary Representations of Costume and Fashion

Curation / Text / Design / Installation:
Anna Fishaut

Clothing is relatively inexpressive on a hanger. It can hint at its conceived form and utility; it can suggest its potential for movement. But it is not until a garment is viewable in four dimensions, supported by a body and moving through space, that it is truly activated. Studying clothing is therefore a complicated task, as it often requires one to imagine movement or to mentally add volume to a limp structure.

There are times when two dimensions can help in this task. Fashion, or costume, illustration is a centuries-old genre that has always been utilized for a specific, though evolving, purpose: to animate representationally that which cannot be animated physically. This exhibition is an attempt to demonstrate the ways in which artists have undertaken this illustration (or, more recently, photography), and to trace the contexts in which they worked. The items on display range from historical costume books to Parisian fashion plate portfolios to designs for the ballet; from glossy magazine page spreads to, finally, contemporary visual critiques of the genre itself.

PAST:

Late Summer-Early Fall 2009