Under the Influence of Finance and Fashion: Selections from the Frederick R. Weisman Art Foundation
Date: December 15, 2013 – February 16, 2014
Curated By: Billie Milam Weisman
Venue: Carnegie Art Museum
424 South C Street, Oxnard, CA, 93030
https://www.carnegieartcornerstones.com/uploads/2/0/5/0/2050909/weismanfinal2.pdf
Exhibited Artists:
M.A. Alford, John Altoon, Joon-Sung Bae, Martin Bigum, Luciano & Roberto Bini, Willie Birch, Douglas Bourgeois, Scott Brennan, iona rozeal brown, Jo Anne Carson, Adriana Carvalho, Les Christensen, James Cobb, José de Guimarães, Carlos de Villasante, Lesley Dill, Ofill Echevarria, Gene Elder, Eva & Adele, Carole Jeane Feuerman, Vanessa German, Renate Göbel, Gustav Gurianov, Stephanus Heidacker, David Hockney, Deborah Kass, Alex Katz, Kathleen Loe, Srdjan Loncar, Violise Lunn, Florian Merkel, Arnold Mesches, Mitsuko Miwa, Jennifer Nehrbass, Orlan, Todd Pavlisko, Carlos Perez, Chad Person, Raymond Pettibon, Gina Phillips, Mary-Ellen Powell, Melanie Pullen, Tanya Ragir, Larry Rivers, Fernando Rodriguez, Thomas Ruff, Gina Ruggeri, Gilberto Ruiz, Paul Rusconi, Christoph Schirmer, Christoph Schmidberger, Jonathan Seliger, Alexis Smith, Dan Tague, Mickalene Thomas, Victor Tsoi, Mark Wagner, Andy Warhol, John Westmark, and Yoram Wolberger.
Under the Influence of Finance and Fashion: Selections from the Frederick R. Weisman Art Foundation
The artists and works in this exhibition, Under the Influence of Finance and Fashion: Selections from Frederick R. Weisman Art Foundation, explore themes that reveal the immense impact that socioeconomics has had on the art of the contemporary generation, as well as on our culture at large. This is especially important considering the recent international financial crisis and the constant bombardment from the media on luxury, fashion and glamour. These mixed messages are felt across class and culture lines in today’s society. The artists presented in this exhibition explore the relationship between economics and consumer culture as they demonstrate that we are all under the influence of finance and fashion.
Andy Warhol, the quintessential pop artist, redefined the role of the media and how it affects our view of money and luxury as highlighted in the recurring theme of the dollar sign in his works. His focus on the American dollar as an object has become a prominent theme by artists in today’s era of the credit crunch. Srdjan Loncar’s works attend to our longstanding societal fixation by showing mass quantities of money in places defined by depression-era practices, such as hiding money in a mattress or an unmarked suitcase. Three of Loncar’s sculptures allude to the relationship between money and art as he recalls Donald Judd’s industrially produced box sculptures. Loncar uses bundles of American currency in place of the cube, each amounting to $48,000,000, to comment upon the costly nature of contemporary art. Dan Tague similarly works with the image of the American Dollar, but instead manipulates it in ways so the printed words display new meanings that shed light on the American Dollar as a cultural symbol. Alternatively, Todd Pavlisko links the dollar sign to the fashion industry through his relief sculpture made entirely of black plastic retail tag fasteners.
Some contemporary artists in this exhibition explore the ever-growing bond between socioeconomics and fashion. While the relationship between material adornment and financial status has a long history, the associations we make between them are always changing, dictated by varying societal opinions regarding aspects of an individual, such as employment, education, and gender. An individual’s identity is represented through the implications of their wardrobe and hairstyle in works such as Joon-Sung Bae’s portrayal of the fantasy of historical “dress-up” as a form of identification in the contemporary world; iona rozeal brown’s fusion of references that combine elements of Japanese costume and African American hip hop culture, and the portraits of Carlos de Villasante, which places Latin American culture directly on salvaged American car hoods as hood ornaments, and Mickalene Thomas, where the patterned attire of the sitter assists in conveying her strength as an African American woman.
Many artists use the depiction of shoes to examine the relationship between fashion and identity, because shoes, though functional in essence, come in a variety of styles that classify individuals by gender, profession, social and financial status, and even personality. The extravagant and feminine stilettos of Melanie Pullen, Thomas Ruff, Mary-Ellen Powell, and Violise Lunn present the viewer with a specific mental image of the individual to which they belong. Lesley Dill, Adriana Carvalho and Tanya Ragir use fashion as a tool to comment on gender differences by incorporating alternative materials to create dresses and corsets which symbolize how women protect themselves.
In some cases, artists question the media’s emphasis on fashion as identity. Eva and Adele, the male/female performance art duo from Berlin, for example, challenge gender-based fashion conventions by dressing themselves in identical outfits that combine elements from outrageous male and female gendered attire. Many artists focus on society’s constant portrayal of fashion in excess as exemplified by Les Christensen’s wings made of 5,300 pairs of shoes, Gina Ruggeri’s pile of clothes, Jonathan Seliger’s Gucci shopping bag, and Paul Rusconi’s photographic portrait of American fashion icon Tyra Banks, while artists such as John Altoon or Jennifer Nehrbass depict lingerie and bathing wear in the fashion trends of the young and beautiful.
How fashion functions varies depending on culture, which is expressed through works such as those by Willie Birch with his serene African flute player in tribal dress, or Yoram Wolberger’s critique of the American trend of making artifacts of war and violence fashionable as illustrated in his toy soldier sculptures. This theme of the commercialization of the instruments of war is also depicted in the helicopters of Chad Person and Kathleen Loe, the glorified Russian pilot in Gustav Gurianov’s work, and the excess of Confederate memorabilia in Larry Rivers’ painting of a dying soldier.
The works presented in Under the Influence of Finance and Fashion: Selections from the Frederick R. Weisman Art Foundation exemplify the growing authority of economics on society as well as the individual. Their works help us understand, deconstruct, and critique the global obsession with consumer culture.