No One Is Sleepy or Dopey, and They Sure Don’t Seem Happy

September 18, 2008
Dance Review | 'The Snow White Project'

By GIA KOURLAS

snow white project

What is it about Snow White? In both popular culture and in more rarefied forms of performance, she has had her share of knocks — like Rob Lowe’s infamous duet with the squeaky-voiced character at the 1989 Academy Awards show and Ann Liv Young’s bawdy interpretation showcased at the Kitchen in 2007.

Now the French artist Catherine Baÿ presents her version in “The Snow White Project,” the opening event of the French Institute-Alliance Française’s Crossing the Line festival. The site-specific installation, seen Tuesday at the Diane von Furstenberg shop in the West Village, transports the character from the land of fairy tales to the fashionable meatpacking district.

As multiple Snow Whites suddenly strike poses throughout the shop — glum and on edge while standing in front of racks of densely patterned wrap dresses — they hold signs with messages like “I Am an Everyday Consumer Product” and “My Life Depends on People Wanting to Use Me.”

This is a story, as the program text attests, of repetitions. Ms. Baÿ’s Snow Whites wear dresses and black wigs constructed from latex. Encased in such rubbery volume, they march about the boutique, freezing from time to time to resemble living sculptures.

But Ms. Baÿ’s Snow Whites, slightly creepy and undeniably militant, are all business. When you stare at them, they stare back, with eyes so glassy that for a moment you imagine you’re looking at a painting. Suddenly they snap their heads in another direction. Mirror, mirror on the wall — and poof goes the fourth wall.

With her collection of Snow Whites, Ms. Baÿ conjures an anti-consumerism performance manifesto. On Tuesday the best part of the production came late, when the characters settled into the boutique’s second floor to play an intricately choreographed game of cards, all the while chugging Budweiser tall boys and crumpling copies of the program, which they then whipped at the audience — Lillet-swilling consumers of art.

In past versions of “The Snow White Project,” the characters have been armed with toy machine guns, but there was a problem acquiring the appropriate permit for the New York performance. Ms. Baÿ reacted in the only way she knew, by giving her Snow Whites a new sign to hold: “On Strike.”

The Crossing the Line festival continues through Oct. 5 at various New York City locations; (212) 355-6100 or fiaf.org. “The Snow White Project” will also appear at Luxe Gallery, 53 Stanton Street, Lower East Side, on Sunday and as part of the Dumbo Under the Bridge Festival, 111 Front Street, Room 204, Brooklyn, on Sept. 26.

the snow white project

Snow White has had her share of knocks — like Rob Lowe’s infamous duet with the squeaky-voiced character at the 1989 Academy Awards show.

Now the French artist Catherine Baÿ presents her version in “The Snow White Project,” the opening event of the French Institute-Alliance Française’s Crossing the Line festival. The installation transports the character from the land of fairy tales to the fashionable meatpacking district.

Photo: Kelly Shimoda for The New York Times

the snow white project

As multiple Snow Whites suddenly strike poses throughout the Diane von Furstenberg shop in the West Village — glum and on edge while standing in front of racks of densely patterned wrap dresses — they hold signs with messages like “I Am an Everyday Consumer Product” and “My Life Depends on People Wanting to Use Me.”

Photo: Kelly Shimoda for The New York Times

 

the snow white project

This is a story, as the program text attests, of repetitions. Ms. Baÿ’s Snow Whites wear dresses and black wigs constructed from latex. Encased in such rubbery volume, they march about the boutique, freezing from time to time to resemble living sculptures.

Photo: Kelly Shimoda for The New York Times

the snow white project

But Ms. Baÿ’s Snow Whites, slightly creepy and undeniably militant, are all business. When you stare at them, they stare back, with eyes so glassy that for a moment you imagine you’re looking at a painting. Suddenly they snap their heads in another direction. Mirror, mirror on the wall — and poof goes the fourth wall.

Photo: Kelly Shimoda for The New York Times

the snow white project

With her collection of Snow Whites, Ms. Baÿ conjures an anti-consumerism performance manifesto. On Tuesday the best part of the production came late, when the characters settled into the boutique’s second floor to play an intricately choreographed game of cards, all the while chugging Budweiser tall boys and crumpling copies of the program, which they then whipped at the audience — Lillet-swilling consumers of art.

Photo: Kelly Shimoda for The New York Times

the snow white project

In past versions of “The Snow White Project,” the characters have been armed with toy machine guns, but there was a problem acquiring the appropriate permit for the New York performance. Ms. Baÿ reacted in the only way she knew, by giving her Snow Whites a new sign to hold: “On Strike.”

Photo: Kelly Shimoda for The New York Times


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