Media Coverage
ART OF ENGLAND MAGAZINE > It's like two Bill and Ted-esq space-time rejects are lost between the pages of a Ghostbusters comic and a teenage weird science video game
STUART SEMPLE
ART OF ENGLAND MAGAZINE, JUNE 2010
CAREBEARS, GAGA & JUICERS
Whoever handed the keys to Selfridges Ultralounge to The Girls was brave. I saw some doodles on a piece of paper a few months ago describing a world they would make, a cavernous space dedicated to the worship of that humble tree product, paper! I nervously walked down the darkened corridor that leads from the bright basement space of the department store into 'The Paper Eaters: Long Live the Photo-Story!'. The Girls, Andrea and Zoe, sit raised on a stage in the middle of the space, beavering away on the next issue of their in-store zine, the coolest collection of photo-stories and retro-styling I've ever seen. It's like two Bill and Ted-esq space-time rejects are lost between the pages of a Ghostbusters comic and a teenage weird science video game. To the side of their desk their assistants work feverishly editing the content from their shoots and warping the narratives that have started to develop during their residency in the store. Within the zine's pages people fall in love with ghosts and over-amorous customers get kooky crushes on members of staff. Each is printed as a limited edition and held for posterity in a fantastic 80s style board game box, this, post-ironic take on our childhood is funny yet stylistically perfect. Every detail delivers. I've been working on a ‘cut-out and keep’ for them for the Supernatural issue (issue 3) and I'm pleased they seemed to like my fold up fortune teller.
Andrea gives me the guided tour of her dancefloor, its checkered floor and surrounding cage with flashing disco lights has been the set for various fashion shoots over the last few days. Through the dancefloor you find their shrine to paper, an intricate installation of cuddly toys, paper itself and a video installation showing paper production viewed via a church style kneeling pew. The experience is strangely relaxing and paradoxically capable (even though it's extremely tongue in cheek) to present quite eloquently the importance of paper in our lives. It's easy to take the basics for granted. One mustn't forget however that The Girls have been collaborating for 14 years now and this show is as much a retrospective of their photographic works as it is a new living installation in its own right. The perimeter of the project features a fantastic overview of their work to date, which was something I really enjoyed, as I've not seen it in real life before. Their work is challenging, accomplished and ambitious. Seeing the pieces from the vantage points of being inside one of their elaborate sets only serves to spark a proper appreciation for their process. In their video about a bride and a mother-in-law (‘Dearly Beloved’), a power dynamic plays out with a freaky sub context. It's here the depth and grittiness of this saccharine pop landscape really comes into its own. This isn't a celebration at all; it's something entirely different. If a spoonful of sugar helps the medicine go down, some retro styling and surface fun surely helps the content sink in undetected. Of course the subversive nature of this being in one of the largest department stores in the world can't go unmentioned,
Testament to its effectivity is the fact that one quickly forgets where one is, 80's makeovers happen at a small dressing table: between 3pm and 4pm every day and fashion designers, hair artists and illustrators are always in attendance. It's a wonder The Girls manage to get anything done at all! The zine of course proves that they can. As I wave goodbye to the giant Care Bear hanging above one of the work tables, I feel strangely glad that my childhood is left in my childhood, its interesting to get it out the box every now and then but when we bring it into the present day, with our lives as they are the results can be truly unnerving.
© 2010 Stuart Semple
Reproduced courtesy of Art of England magazine
Please note that The Girls' month long show/residency at Selfridges has now ended.
ART OF ENGLAND MAGAZINE, JUNE 2010
CAREBEARS, GAGA & JUICERS
Whoever handed the keys to Selfridges Ultralounge to The Girls was brave. I saw some doodles on a piece of paper a few months ago describing a world they would make, a cavernous space dedicated to the worship of that humble tree product, paper! I nervously walked down the darkened corridor that leads from the bright basement space of the department store into 'The Paper Eaters: Long Live the Photo-Story!'. The Girls, Andrea and Zoe, sit raised on a stage in the middle of the space, beavering away on the next issue of their in-store zine, the coolest collection of photo-stories and retro-styling I've ever seen. It's like two Bill and Ted-esq space-time rejects are lost between the pages of a Ghostbusters comic and a teenage weird science video game. To the side of their desk their assistants work feverishly editing the content from their shoots and warping the narratives that have started to develop during their residency in the store. Within the zine's pages people fall in love with ghosts and over-amorous customers get kooky crushes on members of staff. Each is printed as a limited edition and held for posterity in a fantastic 80s style board game box, this, post-ironic take on our childhood is funny yet stylistically perfect. Every detail delivers. I've been working on a ‘cut-out and keep’ for them for the Supernatural issue (issue 3) and I'm pleased they seemed to like my fold up fortune teller.
Andrea gives me the guided tour of her dancefloor, its checkered floor and surrounding cage with flashing disco lights has been the set for various fashion shoots over the last few days. Through the dancefloor you find their shrine to paper, an intricate installation of cuddly toys, paper itself and a video installation showing paper production viewed via a church style kneeling pew. The experience is strangely relaxing and paradoxically capable (even though it's extremely tongue in cheek) to present quite eloquently the importance of paper in our lives. It's easy to take the basics for granted. One mustn't forget however that The Girls have been collaborating for 14 years now and this show is as much a retrospective of their photographic works as it is a new living installation in its own right. The perimeter of the project features a fantastic overview of their work to date, which was something I really enjoyed, as I've not seen it in real life before. Their work is challenging, accomplished and ambitious. Seeing the pieces from the vantage points of being inside one of their elaborate sets only serves to spark a proper appreciation for their process. In their video about a bride and a mother-in-law (‘Dearly Beloved’), a power dynamic plays out with a freaky sub context. It's here the depth and grittiness of this saccharine pop landscape really comes into its own. This isn't a celebration at all; it's something entirely different. If a spoonful of sugar helps the medicine go down, some retro styling and surface fun surely helps the content sink in undetected. Of course the subversive nature of this being in one of the largest department stores in the world can't go unmentioned,
Testament to its effectivity is the fact that one quickly forgets where one is, 80's makeovers happen at a small dressing table: between 3pm and 4pm every day and fashion designers, hair artists and illustrators are always in attendance. It's a wonder The Girls manage to get anything done at all! The zine of course proves that they can. As I wave goodbye to the giant Care Bear hanging above one of the work tables, I feel strangely glad that my childhood is left in my childhood, its interesting to get it out the box every now and then but when we bring it into the present day, with our lives as they are the results can be truly unnerving.
© 2010 Stuart Semple
Reproduced courtesy of Art of England magazine
Please note that The Girls' month long show/residency at Selfridges has now ended.
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Date:
04/05/10
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