When was Colette Justine born?
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Colette Justine better known as Colette and from 2001 Colette Lumiere (born 1952 in Tunis, Tunisia) is a French-born, American multimedia artist known for her pioneering work in performance art, street art and her use of photography constructed photograph. She is also known for her work exploring male and female gender roles, different guises and personas and for her soft fabric environments where she often appears as the central element.
Colette Justine
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In 1978 Colette staged a mock death in an installation/performance at the Downtown Whitney titled "The Last Stitch" part of the "Out of the House" exhibition. She performed her resurrection at PS1 now part of MOMA a few days later as "Justine and the Victorian Punks" (the first in a series of living personas). Justine armed with Colette's vision posed as a recording star, fashion designer, inventor & conceptualizer of products - "The Beautiful Dreamer" (Colette) doll, perfume, beautiful dreamer bed, fashions, lps etc... And was the head of the Colette's estate.
Colette Justine
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In 1975 Colette was asked to participate in "Fashion as Fantasy" at Rizzoli's bookstore. In this fashion/art event (co-curated by Frederico Suro), a larger-than-life perforated light box of Colette was featured, while throughout the store and its windows Colette performed as "Ragdoll" with veiled breasts, a Victorian corset, bloomers and boots. Images of her "look" and her habit of wearing and incorporating undergarments began to appear not only in art publications, but also in fashion and popular press: "Art News", "Women's Wear Daily", and "Daily News". References to Colette's look worn in art and life, are still made as having inspired a young Madonna and later Lady Gaga. During this time Colette begun to be referred to as a "walking performance".
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By 1992 Colette returned to New York and made it once again her primary residence, while continuing to travel and exhibit abroad, especially to Munich and Berlin. During that time her art was represented by the Dorsky Gallery where she exhibited new works from the Bavarian adventure and "the figures come to life". In 1990 the Rempire Gallery in SoHo presented "Through the Looking glass" and "Love in ruins /the artist and her Muse"_ The works from "The secret lives of Count and Countess Reichenbach" were featured among other works referring to other muses, friends, and well-known personages: a portrait of Frida Kahlo and a large light box "the bath" with a young Jeff Koons- (made from a still image of her video "Justine & the Boys"). The Persona Olympia" emerged in 1990 in Munich when she was beginning the process of returning to New York permanently. In 1991, her work was exhibited with Joseph Beuys, John Armedledder in the group show "The Invisible Body" curated by Alan Jones at the Rempire Gallery in NYC.
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In 1990 in an exhibition in Munich at Carol Johnssen Gallery "Visits to the Normal World" Colette began to use the name Olympia. It was the first of seven solo shows at that gallery. In 1991 she presented her Colettesized commissioned portraits in "The Aristocrats"; among the portraits of local aristocrats were Leslie and Dedlef Von Waggonheim, Kiki and Eckbert Von Buehlen & Urbach; and an installation featuring "The Unnunciation". The subject Colette as "the Countess Reichenbach" (with her then boyfriend actor Misha Tregor ("Count Reichenbach") a regular at the Kammerspiele theater in Munich). In 1991
Colette Justine
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In 1978 Fiorucci invited her to do an exhibition, which included a sleeping installation performance in the windows of the West 59th Street store in NYC. Soon after, Fiorucci began using live models in the store and Colette's "Victorian Punk Look" became part of the 1980s NYC "Downtown New Wave" world. In 1979 Emilio Fiorucci commissioned her to create a line of clothes for the store. Her "Deadly Feminine Line" was showcased in the windows of the boutique and Colette staged a fashion art performance at the Mudd Club in celebration.
Colette Justine
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Other shows and highlights of that period concentrated on reaching larger audiences and Colette began using the label "C.I.A. - Colette Institute of Art" and its no 1. Moto - "Fight Terror with Glamor, also " beware of When In Pink ". She presented her C.I.A. (Colette institute of Art) with an installation performance on April 1st at the NYC club" Crowbar". In "Domestic Bliss" (1994), an arresting vision that featured a long pink table with Lumiere plates, could be seen from the streets of Rosenthal's Madison Avenue Rosenthal's Show Room. The Mannequin replacing Colette, was attached to a long table with a train containing at its end a large pile of record albums size artworks from "The Story of my life" series.(78-)
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During that year, Banco gallery in Brescia, Italy presented "Les actions de Justine"; a mostly blue satin installation with slide projections. She posed as "the Pietà" in it for its opening. In the second room of the gallery, her record album covers, collages embedded in satin, which recorded her life as "Justine" were exhibited.
In 1979 in a store window art exhibition curated by Peter Pakesh held in department stores over the city of Graz, Austria. In her window at K&O, Justine of the Colette is dead Co. posed as a recording star in a white satin environment in her "Victorian Look" promoting her conceptual "beautiful Dreamer Lp" (not yet released). Her music played outside on the streets. Concurrently she transformed one of the large mirror rooms of the Neue Gallery for the exhibition "Masculin Feminin" (curated by Klaus Honnef) as Justine's Disco Punk Church Club. This term has currently surfaced in the music industry to describe current music.
In an installation at Victoria Falls, a vintage boutique on Spring St. NYC, she presented her multimedia spectacle "Ripping myself Off". Clothes she designed, inspired by her image, which had filtered into the commercial world, were displayed inside the store. In its windows she posed as Joan of Arc, in a work entitled "Paranoia is heightened awareness". For its opening a fashion show was staged including the song "Ripping Myself Off" she co-wrote with Albert Crabtree.
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In 1985 during her stay in Berlin, Three monographs were published on her work: 1."From Silk To Marble" - a series of photographs of Colette transforming herself with a white sheet into sculptures of different periods of history, thus documented the style and fashion of that period.were exhibited with an opening performance re-enacting the images live. Künstlerhaus Bethanien (with the Torkil Gudnason) helped her document the images right before her departure to Berlin. 2."Colette new works and paintings" - 85 for her solo show at the Berlin Kunstverein (published by Kammerer & Unverzagt) and 3."Art on Stage", distributed by the Stadtische Galerie Nordon (Germany). Colette presented a multimedia installation / performance with her works on the stage of its auditorium. Its co-publisher was Daniel Newburg Gallery (New York Gallery which represented her work during that period).
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Colette's first performance/photo work took place in 1970 when she had herself photographed as "Liberty Leading the People" after Delacroix. She presented this work to the public in 1972. In an installation, composed of white parachute silk, embedded lighting, [lightboxes, lavender-painted floors inscribed with her personal code and audios, she posed as Liberté. This tableau vivant could also be viewed from the windows of the gallery. Fred McDarrah photographed it for "The Village Voice" in January 1973.
Colette Justine