Anne Imhof’s Doom opened last night at the Armory; I saw the dress rehearsal on Saturday. It’s a new commission, purpose-built for the Armory’s cavernous interior; Imhof is an enfant terrible (d’un âge certain) whose tableaux vivants/durational performances (this ran for 3 hours) of skater waifs and modeloid dancers have been polarizing.
Core to the work is a kind of sadistic kink: much of the action is difficult to see, obscured by the hoard of other viewers who are in the way, by design. The sight lines are interrupted; the frustrated viewers become scenic elements impeding each other’s views of the lithe performers, who stare back steely and indifferent. The peep show is mediated by live feeds from the performers’ phones—intimate and estranged, in the manner of strangers’ facetime calls. (I will note—I had great views, but this was a dress rehearsal.) Imhof is interested in the perverse dynamics of cool: of commoditized outsiders exchanging their social capital for hard currency (Doom tickets are $50). Not incidentally, Doom reimagines Romeo and Juliet in high school Americana (cheerleaders and homecoming mascots): cool is a virtue of the young, and Imhof stages an exhaustive, seductive fantasy of in-group exclusion. This part of the work is compelling: the performance both thematizes and symptomatizes the economy of cool.
As a director, Imhof has marshaled a creative team well versed in fashion cool: in Europe, she worked with the casting agency Tomorrow Is Another Day (which has a hand in Balenciaga’s runway shows). In New York, Rachel Chandler’s Midland did the casting. The set design, dominated by a field of Cadillac Escalades (the car of American VIPs and a corporate sponsor of the event) was executed by the Berlin-based studio sub (who do the Balenciaga scenography). The risk of all this high fashion crossover, of course, is that Imhof’s work becomes less Situationist happening than glorified perfume ad, transgressive enough to push some buttons, but pretty enough to keep an audience engaged.
By design, the work is not theater—it is a series of set pieces that are estranged from one another and for that reason estranging to the audience. The idea, I think, is to produce Brecht’s Verfremdungseffekt—a “distancing” that breaks the spell of theatrical engagement and calls the audience back to critical engagement. There is some operative notion in Doom of theater-as-art being distinct from theater itself (though Brecht thought that could all be folded into theater itself). And yet where it is most compelling (and I do think it is compelling—go see it), it is least mannered, and most absorptive. The concert set piece and the ballet portion of the show have a genuine force and beauty. There is even something like generosity that peers out through all the Y2K dysphoria, and its late arrival feels fresh and welcome.
OK, very serious Arcades today. But it can’t always be van jokes and me lashing out at hot gay guys (it turns out they do find out and they don’t like it). 2 recommendations: (1) Sam Buck has a Patreon radio show that has genuinely turned me on to country music; he’s on substack now and he is fun and funny. Check it out. (2) Zoe Latta has launched “Rotting on the Vine”—her list of stuff she would buy but shouldn’t. Great deals! I literally just bought one of the sweaters ($75 landed) and if you know me, you know I don’t spend money on clothes. Subscribe here. And special shoutout to Paola who brought me to Doom. Ciao Paolona!
I added new stuff to the storage unit purge sale here. For my precious new subscribers: Landed cost (the final cost you pay) = the hammer price (the highest bid) + the premium (a set percentage added to the hammer price that the auction house takes) + shipping (you’re always on the hook for this) + sales tax
Also, now worth repeating: I don’t get a commission on any of these sales/am not involved in any way with these auctions. To the listings!
Atherton (1900-1952) was an American painter and illustrator. A realist, surrealist, and regionalist. I like the fire burning inside the house. Spooky.
James Gill (b. 1934, American) has had a long and complicated history (he stopped painting for 30 years). You would recognize his Marilyn triptych from 1962 (it’s at MoMA), this is from 1964 so like, prime time.
These chairs are so simple but so good. The way the back extends out past the seat! In Rome, but possible for one of my EU readers . . .
So someone clearly died who collected Anglo-Indian furniture and the collection is at this auction. Check it out. These are like 16 of these chairs and they’d make a great set.
I ran out of space so no pic. But use your imagination and then click on the link. This is kind of my perverse fantasy of exclusion. Will my subs click on the link?
Artifort production. The Pierre Paulin estate seems like it’s been on a tear recently. I don’t get what the end game is. These are fab obviously but $$$$. I like the blue and red tiger print upholstery but these are kind of quiet in a cool way (I think they need reupholstery, just saying).
You would recognize the Faleschini chairs but these cabinets are new to me. I love a storage cabinet/side table. These are very practical for tight quarters.
I cannot see Joe D’Urso’s admittedly fab apartment for Calvin Klein one more time on social media. That and Cy Twombly’s Rome apartment. BASTA. But he was a great designer. And I like this table. The laminate top—sooo 90s. I can feel the heat from a big ole desktop wafting off of it.
What if I told you that 3 different gay guys told me about the Norman Foster Nomos table at this auction? (I had already seen it). But thank you for seeing me LGBT glass table community <3
Ya know what? I really fucking would at this point. Like why tf not?????? I saw Titanic twice in theaters and on a primal level, it’s still my favorite movie.
May the hammer fall ever in your favor!