FIVE WINDOWS - shop window fiction in 5 acts
by Sabrina Seifried
8.02. 4-7pm Finissage
au JUS, Jean Volders 24
The stage is set with blue draped curtains surrounding it. The image in the frame is a LIFE magazine cover from the 1930s, featuring a shop mannequin named Cynthia.
Cynthia was one of the first realistic looking mannequins and became a star herself. Her maker Lester Gaba would take her out to restaurants, bars and the opera…He was gay and was actually in a relationship with Liza Minnelli’s later father, but Cynthia served as a distraction from his true love interest to maintain appearances.
Cynthia would get clothes sent from famous designers to wear and jewellery from Tiffany, she was something like a first influencer. She even appeared in a Hollywood movie, had a newspaper column and got fan post.
Sadly, Cynthia slipped from a chair in a beauty salon while getting her makeup done and shattered into pieces. The press was writing about it as if she’d had really died…What a tragedy…
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During the course of last three months Sabrina played with the ephemerality and distinctive forms of vitrine display and window dressing.
The narratives and desire mechanics of most window displays are firmly anchored in heteronormative codes of romance, love, feminine beauty, and seduction—upholding and reinforcing the purchase of specific items to align with gendered and class-based notions of identity. In contrast, coded signals in shop windows functioned as veiled broadcasts for a queer scene that emerged in and around department stores, creating queer pockets throughout the city center—hidden in plain sight.
FIVE WINDOWS - a shop window fiction is coming to an end. Join me for a drink this Saturday at Au Jus from 4 PM - 7 PM. Many thanks and <3 to @marumashmaru , @henry_j_andersen , @tavolo_1973 and @au__jus
FIVE WINDOWS — a shop window fiction in 5 acts: 14.11./28.11./12.12./26.12./9.1. @au__jus many thanks to Henry Andersen, Maru Mushtrieva and Charlie Usher <3
