When my former production partner
contacted me over iChat a couple weeks ago about styling
‘s new collection (or half of it), there was not a doubt in my mind the shoot would be monumental and would involve some conceptual gymnastics.
The location is the False Gallery/hausNY space, and she emails me some shots of the collection: a rack with blue and silver capes and dresses hanging on it. Immediately I start thinking about everything I wanted to do. I had the pieces, I had the location, and she was assembling the team. It seemed all there was left was creating the concept and designing the accessories and a set. I went to work immediately, siphoning all sorts of imagery from the interwebs–McQueen’s shoes on Lady Gaga, some lady in a bathtub with crystallized blue and white makeup on her face, deviantART illustrations of the snow queen–literally anything white or blue that had to do with winter. I amassed a photo gallery for the (face) makeup stylist that day, Valissa Yoe, and for Chris Leacock, a photographer via DJ via IT I had met in Miami.
Hoods, hoods like halos, I thought. Some sort of saintly lament would have to be part of this story. Quickly I realized that lament often steamed from the act of sinning. I start counting off sins, testing myself. I strain to remember all the death scenes in “7” and other accessible mainstream horror such as “Saw I.”
Sloth–not sexy. That is, unless you consider 16-year-old corpse models draped casually over pieces of furniture sexy.
Envy–the only thing hot about envy is having green eyes, and the witchy stepmother’s latex outfit in Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs.
Anger–I think we’ll leave that to the female Jell-O wrestlers and catfights in beer commercials.
Gluttony–the only people who find food sexy are the French and the British. The difference there is the French put the food inside them, rather than the British, who prefer to wear it on the outside–pouring slime (gunging) or various other sorts of runny foods (sploshing) all over the exterior of some moderately attractive, unsuspecting young lady dressed in business casual. I saw some videos apparently testing theorems of displacement, showcasing a young lady patiently awaiting her gooey fate while sitting on a bench, in a tank. [This must have been when I ordered another cup of coffee, as my mind clearly started wandering.]
Greed and Pride seem almost inseparable these days, not too far from their friend Envy. They all seem to emulate one another, all casting a greenish hue. Definitely not right for this collection!
LUST!–What better sin to heat up the cool tones of Garo’s Spring/Summer ‘11.
As a huge dork for rhetoric, philosophy and art, I recall some college courses I took in my senior year discussing the origin of metaphors, and how there is no natural occurrence of the “negative.” I of course like to artistically explore that which is proven not to exist, and tend to constantly find the inverse and alternatives to all actions. News from production broke my concentration: Sienna Aldridge, a 5’11” ex-ballet dancer with the brightest naturally orange locks of hair would be modeling. Sienna, sitting at a table, stiff from the cold in her icy castle, longing for her lover, eating snow.
But as with all good stories, there must come an end. Who or what is this secret love she so laments? A lust with which she must live every day without expressing. She walks by, ignoring him when her husband is around. She keeps up a pretense of pleasant dinner conversations while her heart beats so loud it drowns out all sound. She can no longer bear the sight of him being used and objectified in such routine ways! She must have him: her precious table.
I snapped some photos on my phone.
Curious Wednesday is a weekly column written and driven by personality of Ms. Marquise discussing the insides of her head in relation to things around her. New topics can be found on the Bushwick Daily every Wednesday, while you can find her productions listed on False Aristocracy.
