Feb 6–Jul 28, 2013

White Petals Surround Your Yellow Heart

Karen Kilimnik, Kate Moss, 1996, video, 7:01 min. Courtesy of the artist and 303 Gallery, New York.
About

White Petals, 2012

Anne-Mie Van Kerckhoven, *NonPlus*, 2012, collage, drawing, mixed materials on
pastel paper. Courtesy of the artist and Zeno X Gallery, Antwerp.

White Petals Surround Your Yellow Heart presents the work of artists engaged with clothing, adornment, and self-presentation to highlight the inventive design, tactical implementation, or sartorial sense by which we multiply and complete our personalities. On view in ICA’s First Floor Space February 6 through July, 28, 2013, this group exhibition takes inspiration from this definition by novelist J. G. Ballard: “Fashion: A recognition that nature has endowed us with one skin too few, and that a fully sentient being should wear its nervous system externally.”

Lynda BenglisBernadette CorporationKaren KilimnikNick RelphGenesis Breyer P-OrridgeDexter Sinister with HalmosAnne-Mie Van KerckhovenErin LelandPaulina OlowskaRammellzeeCarissa RodriguezFrank LutzNader SadekCatherine SullivanScott TreleavenAmy YaoHilton AlsLeif ElggrenIrena KnezevicZoe LeonardWardell MilanSeth PriceFrances StarkInez van Lamsweerde & Vinoodh MatadinAura Rosenberg, John Miller & Frank LutzWhite Petals, Kilimnik, 1996

Artworks in a variety of media infuse garments with a distinctive sense of pose—the exclusive province of neither the advertisement nor the runway—to stand, statue-like, with an attitude perfumed by immense mediation and an unsteady social sphere. With examples ranging from outlandish costumes to self-published magazines, jewelry to sculpture, performance to painting, this sensibility permeates all fields. Oscillating between branding, self-recognition, sexuality, political uniform, and economic indicator, our adornment always reflects a chosen position in and with society. Told time and time again that ours is a narcissistic age, how do we positively reveal or covertly enact desires before the mirror of our time?
White Petals Surround Your Yellow Heart, February 6 – July 28, 2013, installation view, Institute of Contemporary Art, University of Pennsylvania. Photo: Aaron Igler/Greenhouse Media.White Petals Surround Your Yellow Heart, February 6 – July 28, 2013, installation view, Institute of Contemporary Art, University of Pennsylvania. Photo: Aaron Igler/Greenhouse Media.White Petals Surround Your Yellow Heart, February 6 – July 28, 2013, installation view, Institute of Contemporary Art, University of Pennsylvania. Photo: Aaron Igler/Greenhouse Media.White Petals Surround Your Yellow Heart, February 6 – July 28, 2013, installation view, Institute of Contemporary Art, University of Pennsylvania. Photo: Aaron Igler/Greenhouse Media.White Petals Surround Your Yellow Heart, February 6 – July 28, 2013, installation view, Institute of Contemporary Art, University of Pennsylvania. Photo: Aaron Igler/Greenhouse Media.

Featured Artworks

Videos

Sat, Mar 30, 2013, 2PM
Excursus IV: Conversation
Sat, Apr 6, 2013, 2PM
Excursus IV: Conversation
Sun, Apr 21, 2013, 2PM
Excursus IV: Conversation
Books & Editions

Posing as a retroactive non-catalogue for the group exhibition, White Petals Surround Your Yellow Heart, this issue takes fashion as its nominal theme. The group exhibition presented the work of 24 artists engaged with clothing, adornment, and self-presentation to highlight the inventive design, tactical implementation, or sartorial sense by which we multiply and complete our personalities. Artists included: Hilton Als, Lynda Benglis, Bernadette Corporation, Leif Elggren, Dexter Sinister with Halmos, Anne-Mie Van Kerckhoven, Karen Kilimnik, Irena Knezevic, Inez van Lamsweerde & Vinoodh Matadin, Erin Leland, Wardell Milan, Paulina Olowska, Genesis Breyer P-Orridge, Seth Price, RAMMELLZEE, Nick Relph, Carissa Rodriguez, Aura Rosenberg & John Miller with Frank Lutz, Nader Sadek, Frances Stark, Catherine Sullivan, Scott Treleaven, and Amy Yao. THE SERVING LIBRARY, founded in 2011 by Stuart Bailey, Angie Keefer, and David Reinfurt, is a cooperatively-built archive that assembles itself through publishing. Foldout exhibition summary by ICA curator Anthony Elms, and bulletins from the edges of the fashion world by Stuart Bailey, Sarah Demeuse, Eli Diner, Brian Eno, Chris Fite-Wassilak, Sanya Kantarovsky, Angie Keefer, Robin Kinross, Adolf Loos, and Perri MacKenzie, Nick Relph, Joke Robaard, and Kuki Shûzô. Design by The Serving Library editorial.

ISBN
(ASIN) B00IKWRRHE
Pages
160
Publisher
The Serving Library / Sternberg Press
Year
2014
Publication Date
2014
Authors
Stuart Bailey, Sarah Demeuse, Eli Diner, Brian Eno, Chris FiteWassilak, Sanya Kantarovsky, Angie Keefer, Robin Kinross, Adolf Loos, and Perri MacKenzie, Nick Relph, Joke Robaard, and Kuki Shûzô
Authors
Stuart Bailey, Sarah Demeuse, Eli Diner, Brian Eno, Chris FiteWassilak, Sanya Kantarovsky, Angie Keefer, Robin Kinross, Adolf Loos, and Perri MacKenzie, Nick Relph, Joke Robaard, and Kuki Shûzô
Publisher
The Serving Library / Sternberg Press
ICA is grateful to CRW Graphics for sponsorship of this exhibition. ICA acknowledges the generous sponsorship of Barbara B. & Theodore R. Aronson for the exhibition catalogue. Additional funding has been provided by the Nancy E. & Leonard M. Amoroso Exhibition Endowment Fund; the Steven & Cheri Friedman Fund; the Amanda & Andrew Megibow Fund; the John & Lori Reinsberg Exhibition Fund; the Howard and Patricia Bleznak Silverstein Exhibition Endowment Fund; the Horace W. Goldsmith Foundation; the Dietrich Foundation, Inc.; the Overseers Board for the Institute of Contemporary Art; friends and members of ICA; and the University of Pennsylvania. Programming associated with this exhibition has been supported by the Spiegel Fund to Support Contemporary Culture and Visual Arts and the Christian R. and Mary F. Lindback Foundation. Free admission to ICA for the public is sponsored by the Amanda (C’95) & Glenn (W’87/WG’88) Fuhrman Fund. General operating support provided, in part, by the Philadelphia Cultural Fund and the Barra Foundation. ICA receives state arts funding support through a grant from the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts, a state agency funded by the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania and the National Endowment for the Arts, a federal agency. ICA thanks La Colombe for providing complimentary coffee at public events. ICA acknowledges Le Méridien Philadelphia as our official Unlock Art™ partner hotel.