Fashions
- Spring 1996 (1996)
(Viewed at the Hirshhorn Museum at the Smithsonian
in July 1996. 16mm, color, approx. 15 minutes. Courtesy
the artist and the Donald Young Gallery, Seattle).
This odd film was shown every half-hour during the
day at the Hirshhorn during the summer of 1996 as part
of it's "Distemper" series, "Dissonant Themes in the
Art of the 90's."
Walking into a room with about 8 folding chairs, I
am seated with about 4 others, in this instance - all
women. Suddenly, the lights dim and the whir of the
projector erupts as the power is switched on. This reminds
me greatly of high school. After a title screen, a shot
of a woman appears; She is on a "turntable" of some
sort; We notice that the wall behind her is white; The
floor wooden. She looks like she is standing in an art
gallery; The makeshift turntable turns once and the
film suddenly changes; Same woman, same setting, same
pose, same everything - except her clothes. There is
no sound but the whir of the machine projecting this
image. And after one rotation in this new outfit, again
the film changes with the woman suddenly appearing in
yet another outfit.
Charles Ray's film is so simplistic and so seemingly
silly that two of the women in the room left after just
a minute or two. I, conversely, was amused and mesmerized.
What Ray has done here, by draping a rather average
model (she looks like Jeanane Garofalo's sister) in
various outfits and then rotating her like a mannequin
just once for each, is given us an opportunity to formulate
opinions about beauty, about art and about fashion.
The outfits placed on the model here range from the
ridiculous to the artistic and yet, his model is never
enhanced by them. She always looks rather silly or,
at the least, drab. Ray has made us consider the nature
of fashion, of beauty, of art, of femininity. We have
15 minutes to delve into our own psyche about all of
our ideas on this subject. We find ourselves amused
and intrigued. Ray's formula never changes. The film
has a singular theme.
"Fashions - Spring 1996" is a remarkable short film
that might be easily dismissed by the casual viewer.
The "director's" feat is rather simplistic here. Yet,
Ray has done much with this short amount of time and
celluloid. He has made us think; He has made us consider
our opinions. What more can one ask from film?
Note:
Ray has often used mannequins in his artwork.
Review written in 1996
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