Dan Starling: Costumes for the ChorusPost an Event »

Tyler Wood Gallery

May 8 - June 28, 2014

Info

• http://www.tylerwoodgallery.com/index.php

• 1.415.345.1946

794 Sutter Street

San Francisco

,

CA

94109

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A new series of works by Dan Starling that revolve around and play with the "high/low" dichotomy. The show consists of a set of patchwork onesies and black and white photographs that both relate to the subject of fashion. The patchwork onesies combine "high" and "low" elements in form and content. The onesie, a suit that is all one piece, is a popular mode of contemporary dress. It signifies that the wearer has a relaxed style and indulgent lifestyle. Patchwork, on the other hand, is a textile process that originated to conserve resources in the nineteenth century, where scraps of different fabrics are combined to form a new piece of whole cloth. The patchwork for these onesies was made by recombining different pieces of clothing: business attire, sports jerseys, political t- shirts, uniforms, etc. In this sense, they reference "the people" as a whole. The exhibition title refers to the fact that in classic Greek theatre the chorus are the actors who play "the people."

The black and white photographs borrow their styling from portraits of fashion designer Yves Saint Laurent (1936-2008) from the late sixties and early seventies taken by fashion photographer Jeanloup Sieff (1933-2000) but with a twist: they were composed to be negative images of the originals. As a designer, Saint Laurent was known for his borrowing from avant-garde art. Starling’s photographs incorporate negative political t-shirts from the 1992 US presidential election and a mask depicting Barack Obama as the Joker from 2008. Starling collides the languages of fashion and political advertising to create visual puns on the negative photographic form.