Daytime.
Ext.
FASHION
Hi Death
DEATH
Hey
there, is that you? My oh my, you look great!
FASHION
Thx
dear, you, erm...
DEATH
(...)
FASHION
(sighs)
I like
your hood...
Very
Bowie in Berlin, Low
(1977) era...
DEATH
I’ll
check it out...
FASHION
Wait,
what? U killed that man and u’d never heard his Berlin trilogy?
DEATH
No, I’d
never heard his Berlin trilogy, I was always more into the
theatrical
personas; the glam rock theater; for the people! Not elitist,
like so
much avant-garde, black box bric-a-brac..
FASHION
(gestures
scratching with hand)
Chck out the claws on her,
I’ll give u that. I misjudged
you, I
figured you’d be all Underground LIT, cool-detached… But I agree.
However,
the Berlin trilogy is an assault on theatre AND music for that
matter,
as some might argue it put an end to both as we knew them...
DEATH
A point
we can agree on is the manner by which Bowie is remembered
in both
disciplines: Theatrical and Musical at once…
FASHION
And not
only those two… I think that sums it up… Incredible, he thought
through
reinvention and change.
(looks
ruefully away)
DEATH
Yes, I’m
truly sorry for your loss. He has died, yet he lives too.
FASHION
(rolls
eyes)
Sure...
(rubs
away tear but turns head and grabs make-up bag for concealer)
(long,
awkward silence)
DEATH
Everyone
has their way of working, so do I u know, we have our rules....
I’m
really good at what I do... Anyways, you can’t say we don’t work
for the
same people. To move on one must leave behind, surely you
know
this of all others?
FASHION
I
haven’t looked behind since Lady Die….
DEATH
Do you
ever just stop and think about what it is you’re doing, what are
you?
A bird,
a plane, Wonder Woman? Who are you?
FASHION
I'm your baby sister
(grabs
Death
by cheek)
DEATH
Yes, I
know, very funny, family of decay… but seriously...
FASHION
OK,
seriously...
I don’t
know...
I'm
female because the two main
categories were taken by men and things. Male and Neutral.
Female
is neither, which I preferred. I’m like a recipe, I come together when things
collide, ‘always crashing in the same car’ (Bowie, 1977).
Perpetuum Mobile.
DEATH
OK,
CIcero, speak to me in layman’s terms, get
off your high horse!
FASHION
Si tu
m’aide mon
chevalier en armure brillante...
DEATH
U play
your cards right…
(winks)
FASHION
OK
darling, Well, you know how we started this conversation ?
DEATH
Yes,
same as always, I complimented you on your shape, you are looking
healthy… I can tell… Health must be in vogue or something cus not
so long ago it was all heroin and marlboro lights.... Hmmm.. then you
made some remark
about my
style that I didn’t know if I should take it as a complement…
Tbh, it felt like you were taking the piss...
FASHION
(with
tongue-in-cheek)
Genau...
I
mentioned your hood, you always wear a hood, and gave it a marker,
an
image…
(takes
out phone)
It's an
association, or analogy as a form of recognition. While it allows me
to make
sense of
you, you in your turn have to reassess that which you thought,
perhaps, was strictly yours.
You said
I looked well, which is nice, it’s a formal comment that is nice
and brusque.
I
retorted by commenting on your hood, an aspect of your ‘look’
that obscures precisely that. The hood, or habit to which it belongs,
is a strange example of fashion. Agamben wrote about it. To wear the
habit, with its belt, hood, and neutral colour, as when donned by
monks, ‘was an example of a way of life’ (Agamben, 2013, p.15).
The habit is a visualization of the renunciation of vanity.
(looks
confused for a moment)
a contradiction... but fashion loves those...
Anyheuw,
by complimenting you on that, there remained the suggestion that the
way it concealed your face was what was in fact nice about it.
DEATH
(looks
away hurt and confused)
FASHION
Aww, my
little smoochy-poo, come here you
(wraps
arm around Death)
While
you put out the lights, I turn on another, I want to see where things
go...
Let’s
stick to our story…
The hood
is by no means neutral, as the monks intended them to be: the fashion
of renunciation: perhaps the most glamorous look of all! I think this
is what the Bowie album cover stands testament to.
Because
the idea of neutrality, Maleness, Nudity, Truth, Normal, these are
highly fashionable constructs…
(pauses
for rhetorical effect)
See
this hood?
(shows
image)
David
Hammons - In the Hood, 1993
This is
a reference to the hoodies worn by young, black men living in the
slums in America. Here, the hooded identity of the young black male
is in terms of their fashion statement both an escape from their
racial identification –
a daily nuisance
resulting in their being mistakenly or purposefully murdered by
police –
and a signification of what they represent in a society that doesn’t
recognize them as equals; a disidentification, to borrow Munoz’
term. David Hammons hung the black hoody up upon the white walls of
the white cube gallery. A fashion statement. Art can’t even
represent racial bias, it’s too busy with what it can see: it’s
white self.
DEATH
OK, yeah
that’s strong, I admit. It’s simple and I like that. Black and
white.
The
Sun begins to shine. Death looks up and begins to wiggle his head
while removing his hood to reveal the chalk-white complexion of his
skull. He lets the sun shine right through his empty eye-sockets.
DEATH
(repeats
to himself now)
That’s
good... Black and white.
FASHION
Well, I
guess you’re the only white 'person' who can make a
remark
like that...
Death
takes a deep Ouija Breath, as it becomes quite clear he is not
listening. He takes out a spliff, ignites it and smokes while blowing
huge smoke-rings. Fashion watches him in amusement, amazed at the
fact that he doesn’t offer her anything.
Agamben,
G. (2013) The Highest Poverty: Monastic
Rules and Form-of-Life.
Stanford: Stanford University Press
Bowie,
D. (1977) Low
[Vinyl]. Produced
by TonyVisconti and Brian Eno. Los Angeles: RCA.
