chaos and COUTURE

Lots of Couture.  Very little Chaos.   There was a lot said about this exhibit at the MET before it even opened.  The costume gala was dedicated to it. There were very few in attendance that got the memo. Madonna did wear her Tartan.  

Bricolage (Garbage Bag Clothing)

Without Vivian Westwood and her shops, there would have been no chaos at all.  Granted, as Deborah Harry said, these clothes were old when they wore them.  They recycled and reused.  Nothing survived.  Something had to, but if it did, the curators didn’t find it.  They recreated the bathroom at CBGB’s (which looked much cleaner than I remember it) but couldn’t get their hands on one of Joey Ramone’s leather jackets?  (Not enough chaos in a leather jacket?) They couldn’t exhibit photos of Deborah Harry in all her garbage bag glory?  She was genius at making anything look good on her.  I saw Blondie several times in the 1970’s and she was the coolest person on the planet.  Nobody came close. Except for a magnet in the gift shop, there wasn’t any representation of her.  There is a whole runway (it does look like a runway) of clothes constructed of garbage bags, but they were all done recently, none worn by Ms Harry.  They totally ignored Siouxsie Sioux. 

Moth Eaten Chanel

The London punks were way more colorful than those in NY and that’s basically what commandeers the chaos part of the show.  Tartan prints and lots of T Shirts with writing and pop culture images compromise Westwood’s contribution.   What looks like a moth eaten Chanel suit is donned by the model in the exhibit posters. In person, the outfit looks plain stupid.  It was dated this year, which might mean it was created especially for the  MET.

Only one Stephen Sprouse piece exhibited?  Granted his first collection didn’t come out until 1983/84, which by that time Punk was evolving into New Wave and the look was evolving from what it had been in 1976.   Sprouse was a big influence on the pop, fashion and the music scene. His first runway show was at the Ritz, a downtown nightclub now Webster Hall and it was set to the music of Siouxsie and the Banshees.  Andy Warhol was a fan and Keith Haring became a collaborator. 

I had great expectations for the exhibit, which were lessened by friends who had seen the show prior to my viewing.  It didn’t meet the lowered expectations. It was a disappointment.   The video is so large and grainy that you’d have to be a football field away to actually see it.  Did we really need to see video footage of a shirtless Sid Vicious? No clothes, but he was wearing the padlock around his neck and the gallery was labeled hardware. It's a stretch.   I can’t recall who was quoted, but he said that Sid could not remove it, because he lost the key. Now that is punk. 

Hardware + The Shirtless Sid

Punk:  Chaos to Couture is at the MET until August 14th. 

All Stars Everywhere

Tonight's All Star baseball game is at Citi Field.  All Stars in Chevys paraded down 42nd St a few hours ago.

Photo by Keith Eland

Our own Met Matt Harvey is the starting pitcher.  No one really know what Matt looks like (he does look different all the time).  Jimmy Fallon took note and let Harvey himself, interview fans about Matt Harvey.

The Art is in the Book

There are two very similar named and similar in approach art shows that happened this weekend in the Hamptons.  ArtHamptons is the bigger of the two. We chose to go to ArtMRKT.  All the temporary galleries are situated under a big enclosed tent which makes it easy and fun to browse the contemporary and modern art.  Things happen when you don't expect it.

Masked Words by Doug Beube

In looking at a fascinating sculpture cut from a dictionary, the artist name looked familiar to me. It was Doug Beube.  Our wedding photographer had been working on books at the time he filmed our wedding.  This was 15 years ago.  My husband and I were able to reconnect with Doug and he took us through his process.  I'm always blown away by the unending creativity of artists. Using a dictionary, (opened to the word low-life) he created a sculpture.  He told us that its necessary to position the book in the middle to be able to work with it.  The artwork is similar in structure to the Roman heads on display at the MET.  He doesn't coat the sculpture with any material as he wants it to still be a living breathing book. 

Doug is represented by the JHB Gallery. Their website has a few more works by Doug to explore. There is nothing like seeing art in person, but I recommend checking out these sites to see his creations. They are fascinating. 

Another NY Institution Goes Way Of The Budget

The beloved metal tags you get with an admission to the Metropolitan Museum of Art are gone.  As of yesterday, the museum stopped using them.  The rising cost of metal and fewer and fewer manufacturers have made the buttons obsolete.  Now you get a paper sticker.

Having seen Chaos to Couture (I will get to that in a later post) on Friday, I was one of the last visitors to receive a robin's egg blue button.  According to the article in the NY Times, the color might actually be Mole, huh? The buttons were introduced a year after they enacted the suggested price policy in 1971.  According to the Times they replaced both paper and stick pins.  The buttons were a souvenir to the patron for her/his donation.  They were costing the museum about 3 cents per button, up from 2 cents a year ago.  The paper tickets will cost a penny each.  To cover the 1 million visitors a year, the museum would manufacture 1.6 million buttons a year and they were made by a local company in Chelsea.  In keep with the times, the new paper tickets will have space for corporate sponsors. 

Like the Ramones, CBGB's and subway tokens, New York no longer has the MET button.  

Friday's Button RIP