Alexander McQueen: Iconic Moments from Jean Hürxkens on Vimeo.
Thursday, November 12
The emancipated spectator
"Since the advent of German Romanticism, the concept of theater has been associated with the idea of the living community. Theater appeared as a form of the aesthetic constitution of the community: the community as a way of occupying time and space, as a set of living gestures and attitudes, that stands before any kind of political form and institution; community as a performing body instead of an apparatus of forms and rules." -Ranciere
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From Grazia:
Q:We were talking about McQueen’s early shows the other day, how atmospheric and heart-thumpingly sinister they were. Were you at any of them? And which was your favourite?
A: Yes, I was at the early ones. My favourite, simply because it was so clever, was the mirror box show. He put all the models inside a huge mirrored cube. Before the show all the lights were on in the auditorium and the cube was a huge mirror reflecting the audience. The shows are always about 45 minutes late to start, and I remember I was on the front row between Alexandra Shulman and Gwyneth Paltrow, so if you looked up you stared at your own reflection, if you looked sideways you stared at your neighbour, so after a short time you ended up staring at your feet. Lee had managed by the use of this simple trick to have the whole of the front row, some of the most important people in fashion all sitting, heads bowed, humbled. Once the show started, the house lights went down, and the audience were released from this. And then it was the models inside the mirrored box who could see only their own reflections. Voyeurism was swapped to vanity.
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