Dressing and Undressing

2006 | Between Stigma and Enigma

Taking Kenneth Anger’s iconic Puce Moment (1949) as a departure point, this programme concentrates on the idea of a woman dressing and undressing in her own private space. Turning such a daily activity into a film changes the most ordinary activity into something less ordinary. Sequences of dressing and undressing span the history of film, allowing much-desired glimpses of intimate moments carrying an erotic charge. Anger’s, Visconti’s and Fleury’s films also disconnect the ritual of dressing from its daily purpose but what distinguishes them is that they are unconcerned with the erotic. Rather, they pull focus on a sense of disengagement and introspection. (Dressing and Undressing is guest-curated by fashion historian Alistair O’Neill).

>Read Alistair O’neill’s essay Dressing and Undressing

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