dogged, a dawning (2016)


...

A friend in London works for an art auction house, and triumphed through the pressure of the office secret santa by finding adorable French bon bons at Dover Street Market.

She also told me about buying a new outfit for our dear friend Dan’s doggy companion, Mansfield.

oh Prince Mansfield, merry woofmas.

I tell her I’m thinking about buying a new Prada coat, made of horse.

There’s horsehair to comb, hey, you gotta comb an English sheepdog every week to remove shit, piss, debris from their hair, their shoulders sit lower than their loins, they need a thorough brushing of one to three hours a week, otherwise the hair can become matted and painful as their mobility changes and the hair tears at the skin.

This horse hair coat is the same cut as the Prada coat I have, just a different animal skin. Fred Moten looked me in the eye saying I would get stabbed on the street for my Prada coat. I can’t forget Fred Moten falling down the stairs he was descending with us, all mass for gravity. I can’t forget Fred Moten in a film with Wu Tsang called Girl Talk. I remember seeing it in the high school music classroom of Amsterdam’s Cygnus Gymnasium, Fred spinning joyously in slow motion, while Josiah Wise sings a song called Girl Talk. The lyrics note that talk between girls, -that species-, is based on gossip and fashion, new coats, bon bons, sunglasses, dog outfits, being catty, being bitches, but the sweetest part of their conversation of girl talk is about their men. What about other species? Communicating beyond comprehension, across economic margins, political ideologies, of celebrating ungrouping/ raised voices, meaning something other, other than what you say, spiralling Fred Moten draped in a maroon cape twirling, covered in crystals and beads.

...



with hat by SHHDFA (Shi Hui Hung and Arie de Fijter)

platform by Alban Karsten

for the soft landings charity auction gala
De Appel (Prins Hendrikkade), Amsterdam

20 december 2016


photographs by Nichi