THE OBJECT AS MIRROR  

February 10, 2017 - March 18, 2017

projects+gallery is pleased to announce THE OBJECT AS MIRROR. Featured artists and designers include Anne Deniau, Fantich & Young, Gucci, Hassan Hajjaj, Pam Hogg, Terence Koh, David LaChapelle, Alexander McQueen, Charlie le Mindu, Marilyn Minter, Cindy Sherman, and Mickalene Thomas.

About THE OBJECT AS MIRROR:

THE OBJECT AS MIRROR is a group art and fashion exhibition that explores the role of objects in the construction and reflection of our world and ourselves.  A mirror can both faithfully reflect the truth of its subject and manipulate it, transforming the subject into a new truth. In a similar way, the clothes we wear, the art we display, and the objects we create and acquire manifest the concept of who we are. They are both a product and a reflection of ourselves and the world around us.

One of the distinctive features of our modern culture is the interconnection between the extremes of extensionality and intentionality, or the globalized influences on ourselves and our culture on the one hand and expressions of personal dispositions on the other. THE OBJECT AS MIRROR aims to analyze the nature of these interconnections and the modes of self-identity and self-expression which are shaped by them. The self is not a passive entity, determined by external influences alone; in forging our self-identities, we contribute to and directly promote our own sensibilities as well as social influences that are global in their consequences and implications. 

The notion that the clothes we wear make a statement has become a platitude in the Instagram era of hyper self-consciousness, but what is the nature of the statements we make with our clothes, cosmetics, coiffures, and even with the aesthetic objects we collect? Meaning is what joins the creators, purveyors, and consumers of fashion and art. The images, emotions, thoughts, and sensibilities communicated by movements within both art and fashion substantiate this meaning, and become the foundation of our aesthetic choices and identity, as well as a mirror onto the larger global condition. 

The artists and designers in THE OBJECT AS MIRROR examine the characteristics of personal and social identity using the objects they create to reflect what they experience. They construct a sense of who we are as individual bodies, as a collective social body, and as a collective political body. They problematize stereotypes and question conventions through the exploration of aspects of gender, race, sexuality and nationality. In turn, various artistic production, including fashion, music, performance, technology and the arts, informs our personal and social identities. 

THE OBJECT AS MIRROR will open at projects+gallery from 5-8pm on Friday, February 10th and is free to the public. The exhibition will be on view at projects+gallery until Saturday, March 18th, 2017.