INTERNATIONAL CENTRE FOR PHOTOGRAPHY
Dress Codes: The Third ICP Triennial of Photography and Video
The US seemed very excited about this exhibition, and with hindsight I am starting to see why.
"The Triennial is ICP's signature exhibition: a global survey of the most exciting and challenging new work in photography and video. The only recurring U.S. exhibition specializing in international contemporary photography and video, the Third Triennial will mark the closing cycle of ICP's 2009 Year of Fashion, a series of projects that critically examine fashion and its relationship to art and other cultural and social phenomena.
The theme of fashion encompasses a diverse range of practices and ideas, including explorations of identity and affiliation; the production, distribution, and consumption of images and goods; contemporaneity; age; gender; and global industry. The themes of the Triennial express the exuberance, wit, and astute social observation taking place within contemporary image-making. These artists variously explore fashion—whether in everyday dress, haute couture, street fashion, or uniforms—as a celebration of individuality, personal identity, and self-expression, and as cultural, religious, social, and political statements."
Unfortunately I have developed a bad habit of dismissing fashion photography and seem to take an automatic dislike to some types of staged photography, therefore an exhibition themed on the relationship between photography and fashion in contemporary practice is admittedly going to be hit and miss for me. This slight intolerant prejudice stems from my experience of the UK’S fine art photography market, which I believe has been predominately dominated by Royal College graduates for many, many years. It’s undoubtedly a very good institution and the photography Masters is world-renowned. Additionally I respect the lecturers there greatly, in fact I am not entirely sure whether I made the right decision in refusing my place at the RCA for the RA, but one thing that I do feel is that work from the RCA is often instantly recognisable, and this isn’t necessarily a good thing. The RCA’s masters program is critically rigorous and it seems obvious to me that some students struggle with this aspect and it affects their work. The raw talent that I would expect to see at the colleges’ interim and graduate show seems to be shadowed by what I’d regard as pseudo intellectual works. Works that illustrate concepts, works that express another’s vision and thought. I read Portfolio, but again am very tired of its contents. I am trying to address my prejudice, to reappraise the works that I dislike or find difficult to engage with as undoubtedly my first impressions are not always right, so whilst looking at Dress Codes I’d pause for longer than usual, perhaps even returning to some photographs or bodies of work, now looking back I am very pleased that I did this. There were two photographers works that really struck me whilst I was there, Richard Learoyd (with whom I was already familiar) and Thorsten Brinkmann.
Thorsten Brinkmann’s seemingly mundane but sexualised costumes in domestic settings were fascinating. My attention was held and imagination stirred. Although his self-portraiture seems very familiar it feels uneasy to gaze at. The awkwardness of his self-made clothing, salvaged from junk shops evokes ideas relating to the Uncanny. The further disruption of the face is also peculiar. Brinkmann is very good at blurring the boundaries between sculpture, art and fashion, his instillation that housed his framed works in this exhibition added a domesticity that further disorientated the viewer as what you immediately saw soon didn't add up.
Richard Learoyds very large-scale portrait was stunning - the quality exquisite and detail frightening. The obscure androgyny of the subject was powerful and caused a brief discussion with many viewers regarding her sex. The slight bit of stubble above her lip was arousing and her face really quite beautiful although unconventional and fairly masculine. Richard Leyroyd has built one of the worlds’ largest cameras (a camera obscura essentially) and exposes his image directly onto large rolls of paper via a lens situated in the wall. This is how the work gains so much clarity and posses such immense power. When standing in front of one of his photographs my legs weaken, it is not just the shear vastness of scale that has this affect on me, it is definitely the subject matter, composition and tonal range, as well as brilliant clarity.
