Beyond ‘Barbie’: Art Of Velvet Other World Plunges Us Into The Dark, Dazzling Reality Of How We Dress, Act, And Perform, IRL And Online

Black velvet curtains close, flanking the walls from ceiling to floor, to open the drama. We enter a normally light-drenched gallery, as daylight dissolves and we reignite the embers of our consciousness. The intimate space invites us to indulge in fantasy, forgetting, for a while, the pressure of how we’re supposed to behave and appear in everyday life.

Welcome to the Bimboteque, where we encounter an array of dynamic and fungible characters that collectively perform as Neo-Deco cyborg sirens subverting gender and cultural norms that inhibit us from self expression. The neon pink sign amplifies the elegant play of cinematic and theatrical light illuminating the visual and thematic intricacies of the seductive black-and-white artworks.

Installed in two parts, Velvet Other World: Bimboteque is the artist-duo’s first solo exhibition in Kapp Kapp gallery’s expanded exhibition space in New York’s Tribeca. Part II is on view through August 4.

The Providence, Rhode Island-based duo, Josh Allen (born 1995, Andover, Mass.) and Katrina Pisetti (born 1996, Austin, Texas), met at the Rhode Island School of Design and began their collaboration in charcoal on paper under the moniker Velvet Other World in 2021. Their intimate exhibition draws us into their decadent, deliciously dark deep dive into their scrutiny of the “constructive and protective nature of dress.”

For those of us who indulge – either through private curiosity, public cosplay, or anywhere in between – in the textures and copious connotations of pleather, leather, lace, glitter, feathers, and other fancy fabrics and folderol, the Bimboteque offers an urgent escape and inquiry into how we view ourselves and others in an Instagram world. Pisetti and Allen challenge our perceptions of the body’s existence in a world where many folks spend more time cultivating online personas and styles than they do preparing for an exam or a job interview.

“We picked out the name retroactively, after we made all the works, and thought it feels futuristic, it feels like there’s a lot of big boobs and sexiness, so we landed on this idea of bimbo and tech, combining like the tech, the idea in the futuristic vibes, with idea of the bimbofication,” Pisetti explained during a walkthrough ahead of the July 14 Part II opening.

“We look at our work as a really transformational process. I think a lot of our figures expand and contract and have a whole freedom of dimensionality and gravity, and limits don’t really exist for them,” added Allen. “I think of bimbofication as a way to transform and use the body as a site of transformation. I think it also seems to fit because we are imbuing the figures with so much drama and space.”

I’m giddily transported back to 1980, as I imagine the four flamboyant figures posing in Fêtelife, (2023) mirroring the four members of London’s Blitz Kids, including Welsh synth-pop singer Steve Strange, featured in David Bowie’s solarized £250,000 video for Ashes to Ashes, the most expensive music video made at the time. Bowie’s video co-director, David Mallet, used then-nascent Quantel Paintbox to alter the color palette, creating a black sky and the pink ocean pink, lending a supernatural feel. In the video, Bowie portrays a clown, an astronaut, and an asylum inmate, conjuring myriad emotions in the same way Fêtelife emits an energy. The Fêtelife figures, all masked, including one exposing only a mouth, flaunt their exaggerated curves. The sci-fi element of the Ashes to Ashes video is derived scenes acting as a blatant homage to H. R. Giger’s designs for the 1979 film Alien. Like the video, Fêtelife evokes a dream state, where bodies are in motion and in flux, inviting myriad interpretations. The background of Fêtelife also mimics the scenes for the video filmed in Beachy Head and Hastings, both in East Sussex on the south coast of England, where the serene, natural landscape underscores the presence of the outlandish figures.

Velvet Other World isn’t for the timid or uptight viewer, who may gasp at the subjects and titles such as Gooner Pig Gets Jerked to Death (2023). ICYMI, the term “gooner” is widely used to describe folks addicted to online porn. The figure, cloaked in puffy white armor, defies categorization as its made-up eyes and a shiny breastplate which cinches together two round breasts, hint at femininity while their size and stance suggest masculinity. We’re forced to confront the figure who is apparently seated, with hands firmly on lower hips while gazing directly at the viewer.

The duo’s brazen beauties straddle the fuzzy and furry lines between Old Hollowood glam and fetiish shop chic, with recurring motifs like circles flexing to portray bulbous hands, boobs, balls, heads, and other body parts. Bimbot (2023) reclines, propping themselves up a round hand the size of their head. Flaunting a lean and fit profile, the minx stares at us, eyes obscured behind sunglasses. Bimbot exemplifies the Duo’s manipulation of light to build texture, depth, and mystery.

These sassy, steamy, satirical narratives demand your in-person interaction. Stay awhile, and engage with Pisetti and Allen who summon us into their singular practice where every flash of light exposes our own secrets, desires, and dreads. The black-and-white artworks dazzle and display as much pop, punch, and playfulness as the neon pink Bimboteque sign. Navigating their strange and sultry art underworld, you’ll wish Pisetti and Allen were your college besties.

The coincidental timeliness of the Barbie movie release isn’t lost on the duo, who appreciate Greta Gerwig’s reportedly clever critique of heteronormativity as well as the multifaceted dolls themselves.

“We both grew up playing with dolls and playing dress up, and I think that has a huge, huge connection because we have so much fun making this work , because we feel like we’re like collaging dress-up dolls every day,” said Pisetti.

“We both were kids when the Internet was becoming a thing and there were Internet games where you could just drag the clothes on top and click a makeup button for eyeshadow and easy things like that,” Allen added.

“I also was thinking about the idea of Barbie recently because she has so many costumes and so many roles that she plays, like in her job, so it makes me think of our work a little bit,” Pisetti observed.