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Knot

Skeletons In My Closet

By Zoe Furlong

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Mar 05, 2011 03:32 PM

Every piece of art featured in the exhibition “Tradition Transformed: Tibetan Artists Respond” (at The Hood Museum of Art until March 15th) is captivating. But I find that whenever I pass through the exhibit, I spend most of my time staring transfixed at a large, kitschy, backlit mandala titled “O Mandala Tantric” by Kesand Lamdark. The piece is dotted (literally) with complex sexual images from the Kama Sutra, modern pornography—as well as images of death. It is a juxtaposition of opposites—sleazy porn alongside ancient tantric poses represents the East-West divide on views on eroticism, the constant confusion of the sacred and the profane. Death, represented by wrathful deities and eternally grinning skulls (which alternate between a positive and negative image of the same skull), lure the eyes to the center of the mandala and points to the central message behind the work. That message is another study in opposites: sex and death are two sides of the same coin, the beginning and the end. 
 
But let’s not get too heady—we all need to conserve whatever brainpower we have left for finals week.
 
 
So, as I (along with 8 million other people), procrastinated by watching Lady Gaga’s new video for “Born This Way” over the last few days, I noticed some of those same juxtapositions in this new monumentally weird and glorious video. Good/Evil dichotomy? Check. Eroticism? Check. And for a song all about the circumstances around birth (and sex), there was certainly a lot of macabre imagery. 
 
Lady Gaga has shown a clear enthusiasm for the human skeletal structure in the past—reducing her would-be lover to a charred skeleton in her “Bad Romance” video, posing nude with a skeleton for OUT magazine, performing in a ribcage-corset—you get the picture. But she takes the skeleton fetishism to a new level in “Born This Way” where she appears next to Canadian model Rick Genest, or “Zombie Boy”, who has his head and torso tattooed to resemble what’s literally on the inside. It’s… actually pretty incredible. In the video, Gaga has identical makeup, and together they make an adorable pair of tuxedoed skeletons. Aww!
 
 
Though the crazy skeleton tuxedo dancing was a bit of a non sequitur in the video (what isn’t a non sequitur in a Lady Gaga video?), it actually seemed to be a poignant counter to the abundant (and gross) birth imagery in the earlier parts of the 7-minute video. The sweetness between Gaga and Genest, as well as the brilliance of “O Mandala Tantric”, serve as a reminder that all of life’s pleasures are fleeting—a good reason as any to savor them as enthusiastically as possible.
 
Inspired by this skeletal imagery? Feel like showing off your inner beauty? Here are some anatomically correct, eye-catching, and completely wearable options:
 
"Bone Finger" Ring by Obey
 
"Leg Bones" Leggings by Black Milk
 
"Skeleton Grunge Tee" by Wildfox Couture
 
"Acid Ribcage Tee" by All Saints
 
"Tete a Tete Tee" by All Saints

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"Clothing concerns all of the human person, all of the body, all the relationships of man to body as well as the relationships of the body to society."

--Roland Barthes

Editors:

Dylan Hayley Leavitt is a filmmaker and writer who was known to listen to No Doubt's album "Tragic Kingdom" on repeat as a child and carried her Oilily flower-shaped purse til last year.  She is working on an experimental, part-animated documentary about a vintage clothing store, inspired by her article for Antiques Roadshow Online.  She has studied digital media and television history, having watched a ton of TV as a kid.  Her favorite fashion house is Comme des Garcons.

 

Sydney Thomashow is a professional photographer and artist. With her first camera, she obsessively documented the expressions of her dog “Button”.  Since then, she has refined her style and has studied the fine arts at Bard College and Dartmouth. Her summers have been spent working for various fashion photographers as well as Estee Lauder. Her favorite fashion house is Prada.

 

Contributors:

 

Marguerite Imbert is a writer, vintage collector and style hound. Her first fashion gig was selling reconditioned vintage off an ironing board in Soho, New York. Since then, she has worked for Zac Posen, Vogue and a number of documentary filmmakers. She believes in Alber Elbaz and Alexander Wang. Her all-time favorite fashion house is Balenciaga.

 

Hannah Hoyt is a writer, design enthusiast and constant doodler. Her breakout childhood fashion move was sporting a giant purple bow in her hair every day for a year. She has worked at architecture and design firms as well as the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum.  She is interested in the intersection of fashion, design and business. She loves anything by Nicolas Ghesquiere and Phoebe Philo.

 

Tausif Noor is a real human being and sometimes writer. He enjoys reading Vogue and W magazines and his interests include waiting around on cobblestone streets for Scott Schuman. His first foray into the design and fashion world came at the tender age of twelve, when he opened his first issue of Vogue. Since then, he has fallen down the rabbit hole and refuses to look back. He is a diehard fan of Lanvin, Balmain, and Balenciaga and is inspired by Alexander Wang.

 

Lauren Dowling loves writing, fashion and comedy.  She also once wore her Halloween bumblebee costume for a month continuously in the first grade.  After outgrowing this trend, she studied fashion design at Parsons Paris and subsequently dabbled in costume design and interned at Interview magazine.  She loves Francisco Costa, Raf Simons and Sonia Rykiel.

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