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WHO KILLED FASHION?
Fashion has always had a dark side, but it's rarely been explored as
engagingly—or as chillingly—as in photographer Melanie Pullen's
critically-acclaimed exhibition High Fashion Crime Scenes. Reopening
next week with new material, the show once again lets viewers examine
Pullen's meticulously crafted large-scale photographs of actual crimes
scenes reenacted with a twist—all the corpses are outfitted in
designer vintage and couture. Pullen's penchants for the macabre were
initially inspired by Luc Sante's Evidence, a book of crime scene
images compiled in New York from 1912 to 1914, but she also studied
pre-'50s L.A.P.D. records. The resulting images are gorgeous and
inspire double- and triple-takes when you realize that amidst the
photograph's grisly visage, that dead body might be wearing Chanel
pumps. "I chose to take the route of ambiguity in the series to keep
the viewer as removed from the reality as possible," Pullen explains.
"It's kind of a mind game because you're looking at something that's
based on something horrific, yet it's somehow beautiful." SAMANTHA
GILEWICZ
Oct. 3 - Nov. 4
Stephen Wirtz Gallery
49 Geary St., 3rd Fl., San Francisco
tel. 415-433-6879
highfashioncrimescenes.com
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Melanie Pullen
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Posted on 10/2/2006
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