Off the subway one day, I was looking…
Looking for the perfect dress. As someone else might primp for an event — what to wear for an opening, a party, a wedding? — I dress for videos. In the same way as searching for the perfect frock for a once-in-a-lifetime occasion, I look for the perfect dress for a one-time-only shoot.
Color, form, texture, movement. How the piece will ‘pop.’ Determining the color palette of the architectural setting in combination with what I will be wearing is an integral part of the process in structuring my installations and videos.
Standing Here, my contribution at the Whitney, focuses on a woman in a red and white polka dotted dress. The perfect dress…
Drag (made for The Highlights) no longer uses the dress as a dress; it is a material, a color, a form. It is wrapped around a generous male volunteer (Ishmael Randall Weeks) — no longer exhibiting the specific female characteristics it has in Standing Here. It has become something else, totally transformed, gender neutral, material.
A dress can make the girl. It also can make the boy.
Kate Gilmore received her BA from Bates College and her MFA from the School of Visual Arts (NY). She has had solo shows at venues including Institute of Contemporary Art, Philadelphia, Artpace, San Antonio, Texas, Locust Projects (Miami), Franco Soffiantino Arte Contemporanea (Turin, Italy), Smith-Stewart Gallery (NY), and White Columns (NY). Her work is currently in the Whitney Biennial and from May 10-14 she will have a piece at Bryant Park (Public Art Fund).
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