Stella Vine at Modern Art Oxford & Topshop

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Stella Vine Collection at Topshop & Modern Art Oxford (Part II)

Stella Gets Her Groove at Oxford (Part I)

Homa T. Nasab

On 27 July 2007, the popular British chain store Topshop introduced its line of Stella Vine clothing. According to the shop's website, the collection is comprised of "dark and edgy printed tees featuring her striking child-like portraits [which] are original, provocative and not to be missed." In this venture, Vine is in competition with her own poster child, the ever-fashionable Kate Moss. However, there is more to the "V line" than traditional temporary exhibition t-shirts, tote bags, mugs and umbrellas. Vine's designs include low cut denim jeans and, yes, hot pants. Vine's fans can now purchase their artsy-trendy outfits a la Lilly. Vine has conjured her own version of a yet another recent trend in mass production aesthetics: the comic book. Her red head heroine, Lily, is fashioned after one of the most popular supermodels of the moment, Lily Cole. Vine's character is a pseudo-intellectual fashion junkie. Lilly is depicted leaving the über-trendy club "The Ivy"; bathing in "Van Cleef & Arpels" and reading "Beyond Good and Evil in Moschino, Marc Jacobs & Chanel No. 5." Lily is a variation on Paris Hilton who even "overdoses in Marc Jacobs." The Stella Vine exhibition at MAO is somewhat of a spatialized OK magazine on acid in a high art gallery. We recognize the brands on display: Princess Diana, Kate Moss, Sadie Frost, and others. We become energized looking at the paintings' sharp colors. We feel good about recognizing the complex narratives of scandal which lie behind every picture. Most of us have more to say about "The Mirror's Cocaine Kate cover story" than Vigée Le Brun's 1783 portrait of Marie Antoinette. All in all, Vine's Oxford show is destined to become the feel good exhibition of the year. No doubt the Vine show will be among MAO's most popular exhibitions; I visited the museum on a Saturday afternoon and can swear that I have never seen so many people in that space. The exhibition will surely raise the museum's profile and attendance records as groups of teenage boys and girls flock to see Moss while country wives will turn to the desecrated images of Diana-the-would-have-been Queen of Britain. In the number game of museum attendance such head counts bear critical significance. They suggest the augmentation of major funding possibilities for institutions that are suffering from lack of financial support. Matters will only get worse when the Free Entrance policy has been introduced by an army of politicians who are unwilling to appreciate the huge financial burdens that museums and other cultural organizations must bear simply to survive. That being said, MAO has taken a rather uninspired approach to raising its profile. That the artist has subsidized a decent part of her own show to exhibit a fine number of paintings which are in her possession means that, for one reason or another, MAO has failed to raise enough support to avoid this conflict of interests. We cannot criticize an ambitious artist, a marketing guru turned collector, nor a high street chain store for pursuing the bottom line. However, we ought to expect more from a public art institution with a 40-year history of organizing critically acclaimed and internationally competitive exhibitions. What are we to expect next: an exhibition of Tracey Emin subsidized by limited editions of her bed (including rubber condoms) coming to an IKEA near you?