"Till Death Do
Us Part (E.V. Day, Bride Fight installation at Lever House N.Y.)",
Marry me, kiss the
bride, live happily ever
after . . . we continue to
cherish the rituals surrounding
weddings, those
blissful events that seal the
love of two people for
eternity. In Bride Fight, New
York-based artist
E.V. Day challenges this
romantic notion. Displayed
recently at New York Citys
Lever House, the
installation features two
ripped wedding dresses
engaged in, yes, a turbulent
battle.
The aggressive
image will hardly surprise
devotees of Day, who has a
history of mutilating
stereotypes of
womens clothing. In
earlier projects, she took tangible
pleasure in mummifying
Barbies, dissecting
wetsuits and exploding
haute-couture designs.
For Bride Fight,
Day distorted the ultimate
fashion icon: the wedding
gown. Here, two traditional
white gowns
floating in a brightly lit
space were hitched to ceiling
and floor with hundreds of
fishing
lines and hooks. A
lace glove clenched a tulle
veil, a pearl necklace
threatened to strangle a neck.
. .
the gowns literally
duelled with each other, forming
a dramatic pair that inverted
tradition by showing
that other, darker
side of amorous attachments, and
of human contact in general.
Ruthlessly unveiling
its inherent
frustrations, tensions and
violence, Bride Fight walked the
intriguing tightrope between
art, fashion and (interior)
design.
This past summer,
Bride Fight adorned the Lever
House lobbys
glass-enclosed exhibition space
for
three months. Its
selection for this spot implies
that Days work touches a tender
chord in the American
art scene: her
predecessors at the renowned gallery
include Damien Hirst and Jeff
Koons.
Words
Ellen Rutten
Photos
Tom Powel Imaging