Andréa du Chatenier, Goldenage, 2010. Courtesy of the artist & Mary Newton Gallery
After an era of natural disasters, war, and financial catastrophe, we have a Goldenage. Andréa du Chatenier's exhibition is a tableau of feminine desire and excess made up of figures grouped around two white horses. It includes long legged and long haired creatures, a life sized Venus of Willendorf perched on designer heels and other hybrid nature/culture creatures. The series references both the language of fashion display and mythology. The figures are drawn from different visual images and different eras, some contemporary (straight from America’s Next Top Model) and some historical, such as the transgender figure of Aurelius.
Undercutting the theme of Arcadia and consumer paradise is a feeling of mournfulness. The figures are a mix of glamour and low-cost materials. The birds and butterflies are dead. Goldenage is a tableau of confused origins constructing a picture of some idyllic Arcadian moment, where humans and nature have found harmony, and retail therapy is a given.