As museums all over the world closed down and most exhibitions were suspended for the last few months because of the Coronavirus pandemic, many institutions decided to go digital organising special events. At the same time, these closures and suspensions allowed us to ponder a bit about previous exhibitions and maybe go back to study them from different points of view.
David Zwirner's galleries recombined the two concepts by publishing online three images by photographer Philip-Lorca diCorcia. The photographs were originally commissioned for the May 2018 issue of Vogue to celebrate "Heavenly Bodies: Fashion and the Catholic Imagination", the Costume Institute's 2018 blockbuster exhibition at The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.
The Internet often tends to dismiss an exhibition after it closes and move onto the next big thing, but the fashion and religion connection is always en vogue and always worth analysing to find new analogies and comparisons, and Philip-Lorca diCorcia's images are very intriguing and make you want to go back to re-exploring that event.
On David Zwirner's site, the photographer states "The process was slow, it was as if the models were sitting for paintings. And the pictures are like paintings." The three photographs evoke indeed paintings and also seem to be composed like tableaux that tell stories that extend beyond the boundary of that single scene.
The first image evokes a monastic and minimal (yet at the same time futuristic, considering the purity of those lines...) atmosphere. The photograph features two models, one on the left wearing Karl Lagerfeld for Chanel's Haute Couture A/W 1990 wedding dress, and one on the right in an almost monastic gown by Maria Grazia Chiuri and Pierpaolo Piccioli for Valentino's Haute Couture Spring 2013 collection, matched with Philip Treacy's Haute Couture 2001 "Madonna Rides Again II" hat.
In the centre of the picture there is a mannequin in the iconic 1967 wedding dress and hat by Cristóbal Balenciaga also known as the "one-seam wedding dress" as it was made from a single length of fabric (almost a reference to the seamless robe that Jesus wore shortly before his crucifixion).
In the second image a model wears a monumental gown by John Galliano for Dior's Haute Couture Spring 2006 collection. The dramatic ample gown in a bright shade of red accessorised with a necklace with a large crucifix, points at the red cassock of cardinals, so art-wise it is connected with the portrait of Cardinal Fernando Nino de Guevara by El Greco, but also to the red gowns often donned by the Virgin Mary in paintings.
There could also be a more controversial reference here with the red dress and the black veil hinting at something more sinister, like a satanic force (so is the baby a holy or satanic child?).
There is a final juxtaposition also in the third image with Mayowa Nicholas in a Christian Lacroix Haute Couture A/W 2009 gown reminiscent of the attire or the Virgin of El Rocío (venerated in Almonte, Spain), usually clad in rich brocades and surrounded by flowers, and a model reflected in a mirror in a black dress with matching veil by Maria Grazia Chiuri and Pierpaolo Piccioli for Valentino Haute Couture's A/W 2016 collection. This could be read in different ways: we may be in front of a bride and a widow, but the dichotomy may also refer to the festive and mournful attires donned by different statues of the Virgin Mary.
So there are stories to read in these images that will provide inspirations to many designers, artists or fashion writers interested in exploring further the "fashion vs religion" theme. The images are on sale at the gallery, and the artist and David Zwirner will also donate one edition of each work to The Metropolitan Museum of Art's Photography Department.
Comments