Surrealist Fashion Show
at the Williamsburg Art and Historical Center - Oct. 26, 2003

By Melissa Ulto

The Surrealist Fashion Show was billed as "the world's largest show of living artists working in surrealism". The experience of the event was truly immersive - all the senses were assailed simultaneously in sound, sight, scent and touch. Some of the costumes, Pandora's Box and a collection of crocheted pieces, were so texturally fascinating, it seemed you could almost feel the plaited wool sliding over your skin.

Visually complex layers of fashion, performance, video projection, lighting and fog swirled in a hypnotic display over a sparse set of white cubes and white plastic sheeting. The music echoed at times the haunting music of "Eyes Wide Shut", and punctuated the mood set by models draped in audio tape, wire, plastic, rubber and raw cotton creations.

This event merely nodded to the standard concept of a "fashion show" - yes, there was music, lights and unusually tall and thin women walking about. But there the similarity ended. From the extreme hair to the kabuki like make-up to the very shoes these lithe creatures floated up to the stage on, nothing was typical.

The environment itself, created by the Amoeba Technology Collective, was a wall of video textures and patterns, throwing grids and splashes of color across the models and dancers. Part of the performance were transcendent butoh dance pieces by KVK, in flaming red ballet slippers, a gauze wrap and cotton shift. Another dancer, covered in latex and feathers, contorted and writhed on the set. Raccoco Production's performance of gift heads becoming masked children enchanted the audience. Pandora's Box created sent costumed creatures down the runway, evoking films like "The Company of Wolves" and "Orlando".

Missy Galore then took the stage, performing two songs, with costumed performance artists Sarah Sparkle and Faux Maux as backup dancers. Her video compilation shot at Teddy Lo's Morphology installation filled the white plastic sheeted set. Missy was followed by suckDATA, performing synth, beat box and audio manipulations.

CLICK HERE TO SEE THE GALLERY

Participants:

FASHION :
Lost Art, Apollo Braun, Marco Hall, AXEL, AnnieMurdock, LanaShuttleworth, GLAZA, Pandoras Box, Illig, Graffiti on Girls, OLEK, [dNASAb], Carla Eid de Diego, dressenceinte, IHLO, Maureen & Katherine Stephan, Zam Barrett, Desirestyle, Marrus, Paul Innis[make-up]
Aurora Crowley & Elena Lyakir [hair]
MAJOR,I.D,&IMG models

INSTALLATION/PERFORMANCE :
Amoeba Technology collective [environment],
Vulgaras, KVK[butoh], suckDATA, Eric Knubles, ZEMI-17, Peter Dizzoza,
Missy Galore, Nicole Pilar, Bjorn Eriksson, ForwardMotionTheater, Apollo Braun, Shane Evans, Action Daddy, Racoco Productions, Ondi McMaster, Wendee Diamond and more.. .