sylvie fleury

INSTRUCTIONS FOR TWILIGHT

Sylvie Fleury marks a turning point in the history of glamour in contemporary art. Since the 1990s, her exhibitions have transformed branded fashion bags into sculpture, shopping carts into gold objects, make-up compacts into works on the wall, and car engines into chrome-plated icons of power. She stood alone, unapologetically introducing fashion consumerism and product fetishism into an art world that has traditionally critiqued consumer culture.

Her latest performance, Instructions for Twilight, took place on the vacant floor of a skyscraper in New York’s financial district. Performers — dressed in looks styled by the young New York fashion label Dauan Jacari — washed the  parts of a bisected golden car, licked the hood, and smashed silver spheres with high heels. Their movements were amplified through contact microphones attached to their bodies and to objects, then the piece transformed into a live composition with singers, composed…