Closet Case

For “euqinimod & costumes,” her new solo show at New York’s 303 Gallery, Dominique Gonzalez-Foerster reveals her evolution as an artist—via her closet. Inspired by a recent show at London’s Victoria & Albert Museum of British fashion in the Eighties, the French artist’s very personal exhibition takes the audience through her extensive textiles archive chronologically, from Comme des Garçons tees to Balenciaga dresses and all the way back to her baby blanket.

Treating her clothes like ready-made sculptures, Gonzalez-Foerster literally draws connections using twine that crisscross the walls and ceiling. For example, a rosy tapestry reminiscent of her mother’s bedroom in the Seventies is aligned with a child-sized, pink Paul Frank t-shirt from the Nineties—thus connecting the narratives of motherhood with childhood. Far from a fetishization of fashion, the show touches upon the narratives and poetics of getting dressed. “I’m not a fashion girl,” Gonzalez-Foerster confesses. “I am just fascinated by the way clothing becomes a vessel. It’s almost a room for our different selves.”

“euqinimod & costumes” is on view through May 31, 2014, at New York’s 303 Gallery, 507 W 24th Street.