| In their photographic work, designers Bitten Stetter and Gulliver Theis effortlessly reflect the fact that our society is replete with fashion by presenting the viewer with a fast-paced world based around the idea of its transience. Playing with concupiscence and sensuality in their photographic artwork, flesh acts as a metaphor that turns the inside out while also revealing itself to be vulnerable and ephemeral. The wearer of an outfit has the potential to adapt to different roles while wearing it, but this can become neutralized by the very material that outfit is made of. |  |
Wurstbeauty—Fashion Bites
In their photographic work, designers Bitten Stetter and Gulliver Theis effortlessly reflect the fact that our society is replete with fashion by presenting the viewer with a fast-paced world based around the idea of its transience. Playing with concupiscence and sensuality in their photographic artwork, flesh acts as a metaphor that turns the inside out while also revealing itself to be vulnerable and ephemeral. The wearer of an outfit has the potential to adapt to different roles while wearing it, but this can become neutralized by the very material that outfit is made of.
The goal here is to be tangential to the viewer, who is permanently wavering between fascination and disgust. To achieve this, Stetter and Theis use the trompe-l’oiel effect—feigning classical fashion aesthetics. Upon a first viewing, they succeed in this, but, upon second impact, and by disclosing its materiality, the image dissolves and reveals itself. Precious meatball earrings, sexy facial mortadella bikinis, glamorous rolled bacon hat accessories, lovely meat-spread collars and a dreamlike tigerente-sausage baby dolls adorn these appetizing photographs and invite the viewer into a surreal dream.
“Wurstbeauty” is just one of the many design projects that Stetter and Theis have realised over the last few years. In this way, they once again cast a critical, but winking eye upon fashion and design. Theis and Stetter—other than their roles as an established photographer and fashion designer, respectively—also run the Kleefeld gallery in Hamburg. As curators, Theis and Stetter are determined to diagnose and present cultural phenomena, zeitgeists and subcultures. In cooperation with other artists and designers, the two organize design meetings on a regular basis.
Stetter, the stylist who created the meat accessories, is also the owner and designer of the international label Bitten Stetter Fashion & Concept. Every season, she creates little stories, within which each piece of her collection has a specific role—sometimes as the main character, sometimes as a supporting act, but always with a special appearance. Nothing is at random; a shirt is never just a shirt. Each pocket and each button has a tale to tell to those who are willing to listen. In the same way that she develops her stories, Stetter also works on fashion projects with other designers and in different media in order to bring their perceptions of fashion and art to life.
This holistic understanding of design and the building of design-filled worlds have not only influenced her fashion collections and projects, but Stetter also translates and spreads her knowledge by lecturing on the subject of Fashion Design at the AMD in Hamburg and on the topic of Style and Design at the School of Art and Design, Zurich.
Theis, on the other hand, works as a freelance photographer in the fields of advertising and editorial. However, he also realizes many freelance art projects. His work concentrates on the human being and the implementation of his or her sociability, as a citizen of the world. Mostly, the individual involved is not in the immediate foreground, but is interwoven into his or her environment—the architecture, a group of people or social surroundings. This style can be found in his fashion, reportage and documentary work. Regardless, his main objective is to develop several levels of perception in which the primary level takes on the role of the aesthetics. Graphically, Theis’ work allows for quick access and thus incites one’s sense of empathy enough for him or her to take a second reading of the image.
The act of staging the image plays an important role since he not only wants to document the world, but to give his own analysis, and from his own point of view. In this regard, Theis does not hide behind pseudo-objectivity, but stands up to his promise.
