In 1998, Maison Martin Margiela responded to several questions on the subject of colour. To the question “What is black?” The response given was “An absence, a presence, a mood, a mantle.” In 2015, at dépendance gallery in Brussels, a near neighbour to the first ever Maison Martin Margiela shop, there is presently an exhibition featuring the work of the British artist Linder and a selection of pieces from the archive of Maison Margiela Brussels.
A second question posed to Maison Martin Margiela in 1998 was “What is art?” The answer given was “A need to reply.” The exhibition at dépendance examines that need and it provides its responses through film, sound, and photomontage. “Mantles” from the Maison Margiela Brussels archive such as a jacket created out of women’s white sandals, a halter neck top made from a heavy metal t-shirt, each ventriloquise their own responses to “What is art?”
Linder uses found images in much the same vein as Maison Margiela work with the found object. The artist works with pages torn from fashion magazines, interior design catalogues, botany annuals – with whatever crosses her path and pleases her eye. Just as Maison Margiela replicate found garments for their Replica collection, Linder uses the found image to create sequences of photomontages that replicate the original but at the same time subvert their original meaning. Maison Margiela and Linder elevate ideas and objects which have been discarded by a culture hell-bent on newness and novelty.