In our society one cannot speak about objects of desire without questioning where our desirable images come from. They are based on products of course. The fashion industry create images for us and help us merge into these images in a more or less successful way depending on our age the shape of our body and the look of our face. We buy the clothes, the makeup the perfume etc. and we become in our appearance a little more like the beautiful desirable models on the posters.
The fashion shop for men is the ultimate space to be in, feel and even touch the very core of male beauty. The fashion shop is today’s sculpture of the young desirable man.
In Rolf Alme’s installation that is entirely designed and furnished as an exclusive fashion shop we present the final contemporary portrait of the young man. We expose the contemporary icon of the sexualized young man: the jeans. The W&A jeans collection consists of recycled re-tailored jeans artistically hand-patinated using ecological sane products. (The objects of desire of today are ecologically trustworthy.)
This exclusive fashion shop is made of black stained wood. Among stocks of re-tailored jeans in the shelves are several TV monitors showing videos of the young W&A – models. They are sitting or standing like in the paintings we have seen.
By excluding their faces and concentrating our regard on the body Rolf Alme erases the classical psychological regard on the person. The eyes are like doorways to our souls to our state of mind to our feelings. By avoiding the eyes he forces the viewer to a pure aesthetical regard and makes the viewer focus on the beauty and the erotic aspect of the body itself. The young men are pure objects of desire and pure form. The homoerotic regard of the fashion industry is clear. Unlike Barbara Wilson’s paintings the fashion videos in the shop are made for the man’s regard on himself.
