Fashion

“In ‘Fashion’ the form-fitting, black-and-white striped dress, shot originally in video and re-filmed off the screen, doubly references popular culture, the sixties of the dress style, and its reinstitution in eighties’ Black Label ads. “The fashion of the title is not only that of clothing, surface, but the stuff of which we are fashioned, our formative contexts, submerged, internalized mindsets. Belying the flat surface are layers. Text voices one layer of desire, ‘I want to make myself a victim, to be passive,’ as image resists it. She lies on her back, fists clenched. We don’t always want what we desire. Kika’s acting out of this position on the screen makes the viewer face a conflicting, yes/no place.” – Barbara Sternberg