{"id":1094,"date":"2015-05-04T18:10:19","date_gmt":"2015-05-04T17:10:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/performancemonkey\/?p=1094"},"modified":"2015-05-04T18:12:01","modified_gmt":"2015-05-04T17:12:01","slug":"fight-and-flight","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/performancemonkey\/2015\/05\/fight-and-flight.html","title":{"rendered":"Fight and flight"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"McQ<\/a><\/p>\n

\u2018It\u2019s a jungle out there.\u2019 Alexander McQueen<\/a>\u2019s voice emerges from a garble of colleagues and observers at the beginning of Savage Beauty<\/em><\/a>, the mighty survey of the fashion designer\u2019s work at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London. Much has been made of how he designed with his sisters in mind \u2013 provoked by a need to protect them. Yes, it\u2019s a jungle out there. But it\u2019s also a jungle in here \u2013 in the heart and in the head.<\/p>\n

Roll up for McQueen\u2019s Travelling Cabinet of Curiosities \u2013 fashion\u2019s freak show (at the centre of the exhibition is a room stacked to the ceiling and called, indeed, \u2018Cabinet of Curiosities\u2019<\/a>). An overgrown coat of synthetic black hair looks wildly out of control but is rigorously scallopped. Crocodile epaulettes, impala horns twisting through suede \u2013 these are self-harming sensations. Elsewhere are miracles of craft that appear like freaks of nature: the deep red butterflies swarming as a headdress, the disconcerting lustre of an oystershell underskirt, the\u00a0dress made from a luscious tumble of flowers<\/a> in 18th-century pinks and greens, blooming and rotting into each other: dying even as they to perfection grow. The exhibits feel like a fetishist\u2019s prisoners as much as a scholar\u2019s curios. It\u2019s the hoard of a pervy anthropologist \u2013 the kind of Victorian naturalist who kills as he collects.<\/p>\n

Masque of night<\/strong><\/p>\n

In an ideal exhibition, we\u2019d have models, not mannequins. All the better to sashay, strike a pose, leave us staring as they sauntered out the door. Weird things, mannequins \u2013 you quickly realise how different the gust of energy that comes off one with hands on strutting hips to one whose arms hang limply by its sides. Some of the mannequins have a bad time of it \u2013 tricked out in gimp mask and harness, and the curators often display the garments like a series of Bluebeard\u2019s late wives. Much of the show reminded me of Angela Carter\u2019s The Bloody Chamber<\/a><\/em> \u2013 glittering and resourceful fairy stories, where young brides take on tigers, adventuresses best beasts. If they\u2019re lucky.<\/p>\n

Luxury holds an ambiguous allure in McQueen’s masque of night. Some of his women seem dressed to oppress \u2013 others remind me of the Duchess of Malfi, scorning being shot to death with pearls or have her throat cut with diamonds. Especially as caught in this display, their glamour seems a perpetual durance \u2013 a life sentence far away from daylight.<\/p>\n

\"McQ<\/a><\/p>\n

If art is about the ability to inhabit ambiguity, to push contradiction to its limit, then McQueen is an artist. He is a master of the mixed message \u2013 a confusion that disarms the viewer. Military frogging sits above froufrou. A jacket has a chastely high neck, but a teasingly cropped waist. An ensemble might be determinedly buttoned up but unexpectedly exposed. Or wilfully exposed yet repelling all advances. The vulnerability may disarm, but it\u2019s a decoy strategy. Sex bits are fiercely withheld \u2013 McQueen throws a glimpse of flank or elbow to distract the slavering voyeur. Even the wisp of fabric which seems to hold a mere trail of feathers takes care to cover breast and groin.<\/p>\n

Smoke and mirrors<\/strong><\/p>\n

The trouble with a show drawn largely from single archive and given a brand\u2019s imprimatur is the lack of context. This McQueen didn\u2019t see, read or know anything other than the mirrored cabinet of his own genius. He was, nonetheless, a collaborator , and occasionally designed for the stage \u2013 brilliant costumes for Sylvie Guillem and Robert Lepage in Eonnagata<\/em><\/a> (2009), confidently pleating between soldier and seducer, lady and gent (similarly, at the V&A, a kimono plumps up to make its wearer seem a samurai). His style was undeniably theatrical, radiating a sense not so much of character, but of persona. Wear me, the clothes say, and you\u2019ll have the resource to stride into any room, anywhere. Wear me and take your place on any stage.<\/p>\n

Photos of the work from the catwalk often pushed the sense of sex or damage. By themselves, they have a greater sense of self-possession and serenity. Many of the clothes are ready for their spotlight \u2013 diva or ballerina optional. A black swan jacket, feathers alarmingly puffed up, promises both flight and fight, intimidation and seduction in one. Its opposite number, shining at the other end of the same room, is made of tightly contained gilt plumes, the full, low bridal skirts beneath tendrilled with gold. Others contain their own magic act \u2013 the capes that forever sigh in midair, containing their own transfixed billow; the silver papercut dress that curls around the torso and a single leg, while the rest of the body appears to have vanished.<\/p>\n

A centrepiece of the show, from McQueen\u2019s Widows of Culloden<\/a><\/em> collection (2006), draws consciously on a Victorian stage illusion \u2013 Pepper\u2019s Ghost<\/a>, the classic trick of smoke and mirrors to summon ghosts. Inspired by Loie Fuller\u2019s Danse Serpentine<\/em><\/a>, Kate Moss\u2019s damaged Tinkerbell emerges from and is reduced to a glint of starlight, unravelling her white organza<\/a>, twirling like a mummy trying to escape from her bandages. The frock itself is displayed in immaculate stasis, a tight spiral of disconcertingly white widowhood. No inch of skin is exposed \u2013 it\u2019s a bride\u2019s dress turned into an irreproachable house of mourning. It\u2019s a costume that creates character, that sets a state of mind, an emotional palette. It\u2019s theatre.<\/p>\n

Photos<\/em> \u00a9 S\u00f8lve Sundsb\u00f8\/Art + Commerce<\/em><\/p>\n

Follow David on Twitter: @mrdavidjays<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u2018It\u2019s a jungle out there.\u2019 Alexander McQueen\u2019s voice emerges from a garble of colleagues and observers at the beginning of Savage Beauty, the mighty survey of the fashion designer\u2019s work at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London. Much has been made of how he designed with his sisters in mind \u2013 provoked by a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":1097,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[34],"class_list":{"0":"post-1094","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-uncategorized","8":"tag-theatre","9":"entry"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/performancemonkey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1094","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/performancemonkey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/performancemonkey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/performancemonkey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/performancemonkey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1094"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/performancemonkey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1094\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1098,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/performancemonkey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1094\/revisions\/1098"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/performancemonkey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1097"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/performancemonkey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1094"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/performancemonkey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1094"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/performancemonkey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1094"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}