Bernadette Corporation
17 Sep - 17 Oct 2009
BERNADETTE CORPORATION
"The Complete Poem"
September 17 - October 17, 2009
Greene Naftali is pleased to present a solo exhibition by Bernadette Corporation. Since 2000, moving on from its origins/early incarnations in the 90s New York DIY fashion scene, this collective has made sculpture, films and publications, maintaining high standards of clarity, seamlessness and complexity in its authorless, branded products. For this exhibition, Bernadette Corporation will debut an original, good-looking epic poem for New York installed with photographic images from a fashion shoot.
In its design for installation in this gallery, the 130-page poem utilizes various formal devices and 13 custom-built vitrines. The 38 framed photographs were selected by Bernadette Corporation from a photo shoot they commissioned for The Complete Poem, printed in both black-and-white and color, and arranged in groups of poses. Looking for a combination of casual vacancy and lyrical expression, BC asked fashion photographer David Vasiljevic to organize a shoot similar to that of his recent Levi's campaign. The resulting images, clearly in the genre of the denim campaign, are of young attractive models in an empty seamless environment advertising nothing but themselves and by extension, life in jeans.
The exhibition displays and packages two modes of production: the work of writing and the work of modeling. The series run parallel to each other as imprints of disciplined efforts, the text printed on white pages and the models posed in front of a blank backdrop echo each other, staring into each other, striking unresolved chords. The models labor over a young look for our times. The writing manufactures language in poetic form. Together they engage the traditional relationship of conceptual surfaces that hold photo series as sociological evidence and sheets of paper as evidence of intellectual expenditure. The poem-as-art object proposes a realistic relationship to its commodity status. It is less concerned with offering dematerialized relief for market-driven culture than with learning how to stand in the space of the commodity as a poem.
In addition to the current exhibition, a continuation of John Knight's Worldebt, currently on view at Richard Telles Fine Art in Los Angeles, is installed in the entryway.
"The Complete Poem"
September 17 - October 17, 2009
Greene Naftali is pleased to present a solo exhibition by Bernadette Corporation. Since 2000, moving on from its origins/early incarnations in the 90s New York DIY fashion scene, this collective has made sculpture, films and publications, maintaining high standards of clarity, seamlessness and complexity in its authorless, branded products. For this exhibition, Bernadette Corporation will debut an original, good-looking epic poem for New York installed with photographic images from a fashion shoot.
In its design for installation in this gallery, the 130-page poem utilizes various formal devices and 13 custom-built vitrines. The 38 framed photographs were selected by Bernadette Corporation from a photo shoot they commissioned for The Complete Poem, printed in both black-and-white and color, and arranged in groups of poses. Looking for a combination of casual vacancy and lyrical expression, BC asked fashion photographer David Vasiljevic to organize a shoot similar to that of his recent Levi's campaign. The resulting images, clearly in the genre of the denim campaign, are of young attractive models in an empty seamless environment advertising nothing but themselves and by extension, life in jeans.
The exhibition displays and packages two modes of production: the work of writing and the work of modeling. The series run parallel to each other as imprints of disciplined efforts, the text printed on white pages and the models posed in front of a blank backdrop echo each other, staring into each other, striking unresolved chords. The models labor over a young look for our times. The writing manufactures language in poetic form. Together they engage the traditional relationship of conceptual surfaces that hold photo series as sociological evidence and sheets of paper as evidence of intellectual expenditure. The poem-as-art object proposes a realistic relationship to its commodity status. It is less concerned with offering dematerialized relief for market-driven culture than with learning how to stand in the space of the commodity as a poem.
In addition to the current exhibition, a continuation of John Knight's Worldebt, currently on view at Richard Telles Fine Art in Los Angeles, is installed in the entryway.