XVI Chloe Smolarski
19.07. – 27.07.02

The American artist Chloe Smolarski presently based in Barcelona, Spain is presenting at Capri Berlin five bikinis entitled : The Fringe, Tighty Whitey, Assman, The Sleeve and Red. The women’s bathing suits are made from men’s underwear humorously addressing classic feminism’s masculine definition of equality. Women and men are not example definitions of femininity and masculinity but rather creatures continuously defining themselves as well as being subject to pre-existing classifications. The actual bathing suits are in the same exhibition as a slide show depicting women wearing the bikinis shot in a natural context at a city beach in Barcelona. The contrast between the deflated clothing and the clothed bodies allude to the projection of fantasy onto a material item insignificant in itself. The images and the objects address the constraints of masculine and feminine definitions.
In addition to the transformation of men’s underwear into women’s bathing suits Smolarski transforms the space, or at least hypothetically. The gallery contains faux formalist structures which were originally used to display cut flowers. A list of options of how to attend to the white structures are presented.