A photograph is the basis of Katrin Mayer’s annual edition, offering viewers a fleeting glimpse of Marcel Broodthaers’ exhibition Décor: A Conquest through the ornamented cast-iron gates of the Michael Werner Gallery in New York. Broodthaers’ (1924–1976) critical examination of exhibition practices and institutional frameworks has played a pivotal role in the work of many artists including Mayer, who printed the photograph on eleven translucent chiffon scarves for Décor, folding each individually to create a series of unique works.
Bridging the divide between materiality, imagery, ornamentation and object art, Katrin Mayer’s work references both Marcel Broodthaers and Adolf Loos, whose identification of ornamentation with the feminine in the early 20th century has impacted on discussions of Modernity ever since.