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Photograph by Annie Liebowitz, 1986
Photograph by Annie Liebowitz, 1986
Adelle Lutz
Urban Camouflage Clothing: Column Dress, 1986
Mixed media.
ADELUT_1986_03
‘These costumes are generic, they are not terribly subtle....’ - Adelle Lutz Multi-media artist Adelle Lutz’ “Urban Camouflage” 1986 suite of four garments displace the image of hard materials of...
‘These costumes are generic, they are not terribly subtle....’ - Adelle Lutz
Multi-media artist Adelle Lutz’ “Urban Camouflage” 1986 suite of four garments displace the image of hard materials of building cladding onto the soft and moble human cladding. The red and taupe colored bricks could be seen as domestic, while the granite blocks and column may evoke institutional architecture.
Busy Work at Home responds to Lutz’ suggestion of absorption by juxtaposing her trompe l’oeil suite with Bless’ photomural from Pavel’s home with its red brick walls. This tableau references a diminishment of “self” recently experienced by many as in-person social experiences were replaced with sudden saturation with our own home interiors. The condition is often described as “Surreal”, even by people not particularly versed in art history.
In the context of Busy Work at Home, the combination of Pavel’s European red bricks with Lutz’ building materials motif raises another story of adaptation, connecting historically to the turn of the 20th Century tatebanko prints on view. Japan’s then governing Emperor Meiji sought to connect the previously elusive country of Japan with the industrialized nations of the Western world. Western designers were employed to replace traditional Japanese wood buildings with Western style buildings, frequently built of red brick or granite, often with columns and classical features. Notable examples of Meiji-era architecture can be found employing each of the materials depicted in Lutz’ suite. The appearance of such buildings must have appeared quite Surreal amidst Japanese style architecture, or a lapse of national identity.
First seen in the film True Stories, also on view, these costumes were further immortalized in an iconic series of photographs by Annie Liebowitz, published in Vanity Fair (October, 1986). “Urban Camouflage” included in The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York’s “Fashion and Surrealism” exhibition. These works, at once, possess the humor associated with Pop culture while hinting at a variety of conditions of the human psyche.
Multi-media artist Adelle Lutz’ “Urban Camouflage” 1986 suite of four garments displace the image of hard materials of building cladding onto the soft and moble human cladding. The red and taupe colored bricks could be seen as domestic, while the granite blocks and column may evoke institutional architecture.
Busy Work at Home responds to Lutz’ suggestion of absorption by juxtaposing her trompe l’oeil suite with Bless’ photomural from Pavel’s home with its red brick walls. This tableau references a diminishment of “self” recently experienced by many as in-person social experiences were replaced with sudden saturation with our own home interiors. The condition is often described as “Surreal”, even by people not particularly versed in art history.
In the context of Busy Work at Home, the combination of Pavel’s European red bricks with Lutz’ building materials motif raises another story of adaptation, connecting historically to the turn of the 20th Century tatebanko prints on view. Japan’s then governing Emperor Meiji sought to connect the previously elusive country of Japan with the industrialized nations of the Western world. Western designers were employed to replace traditional Japanese wood buildings with Western style buildings, frequently built of red brick or granite, often with columns and classical features. Notable examples of Meiji-era architecture can be found employing each of the materials depicted in Lutz’ suite. The appearance of such buildings must have appeared quite Surreal amidst Japanese style architecture, or a lapse of national identity.
First seen in the film True Stories, also on view, these costumes were further immortalized in an iconic series of photographs by Annie Liebowitz, published in Vanity Fair (October, 1986). “Urban Camouflage” included in The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York’s “Fashion and Surrealism” exhibition. These works, at once, possess the humor associated with Pop culture while hinting at a variety of conditions of the human psyche.