May 07, 2006
Gothic Formality
by Jerome du Bois
Browsing through the sitemeter spanning the last week or so, I noticed an unusual amount of interest --from Addison (IL), Agincourt (Ontario), Amsterdam, Budapest, Brussels, Burgas (Belgium), Copenhagen, Corpus Christi, Don Mills (Ontario), Elmhurst (IL), Granby (Quebec), Graz (Austria), Hampton (NH), Istanbul, Kortenberg (Belgium), Kristianstad (Sweden), Lelystad (Netherlands), Levittown (PA), Libya, Lisbon, Los Angeles, Muscat (Oman), Newmarket (Queensland, AUS), New York City, Penonom (Panama), Procoio Nuovo (Italy), Rabat (Morocco), Riyadh (?!), Rome, Ryde (NSW), San Leandro (CA), Santander (Spain), Seacroft (Leeds, UK), Stockholm, Tehran (!), Tividar (Hungary), Toronto, and Vilnius (Lithuania)-- in the two Portraits of Catherine below.
Secret-Keepers (l.) and Better 'N Bets
Curious. Why these two for a microblogburst? So I decided to set them up side by side and try to figure it out. (By the way, note the far-flung locations on the list, most from overseas, and the dearth of locals on it as well. Nobody from our own backyard. I'm not surprised; we're talking about Beauty and Haute Couture here.)
The general look of both of Catherine's concepts here is New Formality: fine fabrics, dark colors, real tailoring, elegance over busyness, use of vintage clothing or pattern, and unique but tasteful accents and accessories: lace, fans, fingerless gloves, cameo.
Looking longer, a darker, Gothic chord begins to sound. Note that neither ensemble would look out of place at a funeral (with a black jacket or cape for Catherine in Better 'N Bets).
Secret-Keepers contains three women, not one, in a reference to the classic pagan theme of the three stages marking the arc of a woman's lifespan: maiden (cameo), mother (Catherine), crone (Korean woman on small fan). Every object in the ensemble, including the exquisite jacket --made of heavy black pique with ivory damask panels, with crisp black lace trim-- came from a dead woman. Each is memento mori. Each is haunted.
(By the way, the front of the jacket, like the Betsey Johnson below, fell a little short in the finishing. Only five buttons held it together, which wasn't trim enough for Catherine. So she added five snaps and eight hooks and eyes.)
What, you think fashion plus art plus photography isn't serious?
In her posting on Better 'N Bets --the first piece of Upgraded Couture from The House of Note For Sale--Catherine wrote:
The silk is a very deep wine-colored very small plaid. I feel I remember it from the Nineteenth Century. It's so evocative it makes me want to play some Civil War music and cry. . .
That's the mood exactly.
But what could be the meaning or meanings behind the positions of her hands? On first reading, they refer to the focus of Catherine's upgrading, the lace additions top and bottom. But because I know Catherine never works on one level, and using her statements above as clues, I am free to search for deeper interpretations. Such as:
It's a short drop from life to death. With her head shrouded, she draws the viewer's attention to the figure's torso. As we all know, Anatomy is Destiny-- especially for a woman. Any Woman, all Women. Look further than the personal. She is pointing to a universal Truth. Do not focus on Catherine's finger. Instead, follow in the direction to which she points.
Her delicate wrists, encased in the dead woman's gloves, echo the tender torso sheathed in the bones of Betsey's corset. Her wrists bend both forward and backward-- this woman is bound, and determined, to use her hands to death. They must express that which she requires, as an artist, as an actress. After all, her time in this body is limited, as well she knows.
Finally, why the proponderance of visits from Europe, by far the majority? I think it's because they recognize style better than Americans do, but also because Europeans have a lot longer history than we do of mourning, and of living with the innocent dead.
CODA: A couple of notes about why Catherine keeps custody of her features in these portraits. First I have to share the unwitting paradoxical irony of a comment I ran across somewhere: "I thought I saw Catherine King at the supermarket, but I couldn't be sure because she didn't have anything covering her face." Good. She has local enemies, and she wants to stay safe. But the practice is also consistent with these photographs, which she designs. They are not about her, herself --they are about Woman.
Posted by Jerome at May 7, 2006 08:35 PM | TrackBack