Gallery of Modern Art - Beagles and Ramsey Review

By Julian Pla and Robyn Harraughty

A recent exhibition will make you question the future of cuture and consumerism. With sculpted and video displays, it highlights a dark side of the fashion world.

At the Gallery of Modern Art, Glasgow, based artists John Beagles and Graham Ramsay most known for their contemporary art, transformed the gallery floor into a flagship store. The display is made from recycled furniture material and compromises up to 80 models. They showcase a clothing line and accessories that look two-dimensional, almost as if mocking the way clothes and fashion are becoming soulless.

A dimly lit room displays, three NHOTB & RAD fashion lines and, some of these figures are shown with video animations. Each display showed a different side to the fashion world and how the consumerism is destroying the high street.

The artworks are decorated with lanyards and unique styles of clothing, with rails and displays filled the unusual one-size-fits-all clothing, highlighting how the fashion world does not consider plus sizes and its stigma of the imperfect body type. It mimics and pokes fun at the industry and its never-ending facade of inclusivity.

There are a few displays as mirrors, confronting the idea of conformity by showing your own beauty, fashion and your own sense of style. They show that individuality is also important and that you shouldn’t dress a certain way to please others. Ultimately, by making us look inwards it allows us to better understand the exposition and reflect on our own self-worth and independence.

Strolling through this pop-up-like shop, you see many displays of up to 10-15 different statues telling us a different story. One shows the decrease of high street and the decline of consumerism due to online fashion. Each one of these displays tells us something different. Using the bright colours, big bags and the placement of each object in unique ways. The detail of each of these scenes is astonishing and placed in specific ways to confront the idea of what fashion is, was, and will become.

The central piece of the exposition is a runway-like structure with a model grabbing all the attention away from everything else, monopolising the spotlight in a futile attempt to distract us from the decaying world of fashion and branding it as the next big thing. The sculpture is made of recycled materials and shines bright with the lights bouncing of the mirror like face, casting a shadow over the entire floor. This reminds us of how fragile and subjective fashion can be.

These figures mixed in with their videos shows their struggle to stand as individuals. The display shows how fast-fashion is killing the industry and how fragile the ecosystem has become. It highlights the dark side of the fashion world, and how as a society we’ve become engulfed by the sole idea of admiration towards brands.

The exhibition confronts designer-like brands, and the idea of what fashion has really become. It prompts the question, is fashion considered vanguardist because of the brands or are the brands considered vanguardist because of the fashion?