Miu Miu tags, irreverent gazes and suave movement: luckily, “look, but do not touch” does not apply when it’s in print!
Pole dancing and its sexual implications have been an ongoing, irresolute debate for decades; now, the media is back to redeem it. As per this weekend’s Oscars Awards, Sean Baker’s Anora – a gleamy, Brooklyn-Cinderella story of a sex worker falling for a Russian oligarch’s son – became a quadruple laureate. With this historical poly-prize, the fickle tension of sex work-indulgent media was legitimized by the Hollywood upper hand, with its glamour, stigma and mystery jumbled altogether.
An industry upper hand of her own, legend Lotta Volkova recently released her new artbook, which assents no less to the homiletic trend. Everyth!ng 001, a collaborative photobook with Michella Bredahl, is a sensitive insight into the every so often mystified world of pole dancers. Woven into the culture, visual artist (and pole dancer herself) Bredahl imprints the photographs with a grappling sense of knowing what really goes down, beyond the sought-out aesthetics of sensual figures dancing in heels too high. The imagery is stunningly set on a pedestal, showcasing a panoramic intimacy of contorted silhouettes in familiar, homely settings. Yet along with the beauty, mystery and cheeky Miu Miu inserts, there is something ineffable that spares the viewer from the usually fetishistic representation they are fed on the topic. Throughout our browsing, we are invited into an array of living rooms and bedrooms as curious voyeurs, witnessing these women practicing their craft – majestically, at that.
Bredahl’s prior documentation of women working in pole dancing mixes delectably with Volkova’s indelible stylistic trademark – and it is, quite literally, everything.
Look for the (very limited edition!) book on IDEA books’ website, Dover Street Market London, Dover Street Market New York and Haven Surf, Antwerp.
Images courtesy of the artists
Words by Luna Sferdianu
