CAITLIN RUETER
POISE, POWER AND
PROTOCOL
23 January – 6 March 2011
Monday and Wednesday
5 pm – 7 pm on appointment
The exhibition
CAITLIN RUETER
POISE, POWER AND PROTOCOL
23 January – 6 March 2011
Poise, Power and Protocol:
An American Allegory in Forty-Four Scenes
In Poise, Power, and Protocol: An American Allegory in Forty-Four Scenes, Caitlin Rueter explores history as a vehicle for constructing identity. She uses an underdeveloped chapter in American history: the First Lady’s role next to the president of the United States. Caitlin Rueter presents her photographic sculptures as a performance of ritualized role-play. Inspired by the American tradition of historical re-enactment and its blend of reverence and play, she adorns life-sized paper dolls with personal effects borrowed from each of the First Ladies, from Martha Washington to Michelle Obama. For example, Rueter stands in Ellen Wilson’s study wearing Betty Ford’s tunic and Nancy Reagan’s bob. Pins hold the dresses and accessories in place on the backdrops.
These items, taken from portrait reproductions, weave together narratives from different historic eras. Each scene is an amalgam of anecdotal, hidden and unacknowledged histories.
By placing herself in successive re-imaginings, Caitlin Rueter manipulates our conception of history and visually demonstrates the inconsistency of memory. In the combination of truth and fiction, the exhibited works contain an endless number of histories, each with elements of fact and fabrication that bedevil any attempt to construct a single, all-purpose narrative.
Exhibition opening
Saturday, 22 January 2011 at 5 pm
bildkultur | galerie, Markelstr. 19, 70193 Stuttgart
Introduction
Dr. Matthias Bullinger
bildkultur Stuttgart
The exhibition is on view
from Sunday 23 January – Sunday 6 March 2011
Gallery
hours
Monday and Wednesday
5 pm – 7 pm on appointment
Sponsorship
