All those who wear T shirts boasting a personal philosophy, all fashion victims, style setters and retro fanatics, and those who wear clothes to conceal the body and project an image, go see this exhibition and have a rethink about your dress sense. If you think class or culture is in the wardrobe, Geidans demonstrates how truth is in the draws.
It used to be easy to tell the nun from the housewife from the whore by their outfit but today's dress code is indecipherable. In this exhibition of finely wrought paintings of garments, some empty and draped over chairs or flung on the floor, others filled to overflowing, Geidans reveals how the outer layer of clothing is just a projection of perfection. She then goes on to expose the hidden under layer with all their little secrets. As the artist says, "Garments close to our bodies often tell the greatest stories."
One has to adjust the mind-set when confronted with finely painted images of stained panties and Y-fronts or studies of spent elastic waistbands held together by a safety pin beneath bulging bellies. These are imperfections that are often hidden beneath a perfect protective layer of clothing. More curious then the subject matter are the questions the images inspire. For example, do clothes maketh the man? If so, then what of Misfit where a burley man attempts to pull on a dress, or Looking Back where a woman looks at a dress while wearing a man's clothes, backwards? Are advertisers correct when they say sexuality is in the garment? If that's true, what of the old woman in Reminisce who wears androgynous clothes and sleeps alongside an empty outfit from her youth. Is she no longer a sexual being? Does she dream of lost yearnings or do they continue to stir within? The clue could be in the blooming cactus between the woman and the dress. And what of Trace, a perfect presentation of a hollow pink frock on a chair that casts the shadow of a seated woman. Is the person real only when she's dressed up?
Pondering these questions is more confronting then looking at the well made images. The is no question as to Geidans' expertise in manipulating the medium to beautifully replicate the fabric of reality, in more ways then one. This is a fine display of thought provoking works that speak on the indignity of trying to squeeze into a persona that doesn't fit. See it, in comfortable clothes.