Picture This

Susie pulled a couple of sketches across the table, placing them beside the reproduction. The first was several studies of the heads of the female servants, their hair bound in the traditional style of the era.

She stretched her hands over the drawing as if executing some strange osmosis. The other two hovered behind her, reverently: they knew better than to interrupt this crucial process.

‘So I’ve been working on ways of introducing historical American icons into the image… ’ The artist traced the hairstyles of the younger female servants, their hair bound up in two buns like rabbits ears. ‘Minnie Mouse.’ She turned to her laptop and opened it; already on the screen was a Disney illustration of Minnie Mouse. ‘We’ll change the hair on the two young servants and make them into Minnie Mouse ears, then change the pattern on the fans they are holding to the old TWA logo.’

She clicked open another screen and an illustration of the 1960s TWA logo she’d found earlier appeared. Using her mouse, she placed it beside the Minnie Mouse image.

‘It’s strong, Susie,’ Muriel commented, glancing back down at the original Chinese print. ‘I always associate the TWA logo with America at its Sixties peak. Glory years.’

‘What do you think, Alfie?’ Susie asked, knowing her manager tended to be more critical.

‘It’s getting there,’ Alfie murmured, ‘but I think you can still do something with the chair… it’s so distinctive against the plain background. If we kept all the figures in traditional robes with painted masks that are so lifelike they look like actual faces… you can afford to mess with the chair.’

Susie stared down again. He was right: the oversized dark wooden chair had the ornate embellishments of late 18th-century Chinese furniture. It historically dated the image and yet there were ways of achieving the same ambience while substituting it for something far more contemporary and Western – preferably a piece that made an ironic statement on American culture. She thought of a dentist’s chair, then decided it was too clinical. The chair in the original painting had very boxy lines, like a car bonnet.

‘How about we swap the chair for the bonnet of a Chrysler – something iconic?’

‘I like it. The automobile is America.’ Finally Susie could hear enthusiasm in Alfie’s voice. Inspired, she pulled up images of Chryslers in the top right-hand corner of the screen.

Muriel glanced across at the screen. ‘The Chrysler Imperial, 1965.’ She pointed to one of the images. ‘I had one once, when I was wild and young.’

‘You still are wild.’ Alfie smiled.

‘Thanks, darling.’

Susie saved the image of the Imperial, then deleted the rest of the pictures of the Chrysler models. ‘Perfect. We’ll group all of the figures around the bonnet. I think we should bring the actual car into the studio for the shoot.’

‘No problem – there’s a car-size lift in the loading bay, we’ll just bring it up… ’ Alfie was taking notes. ‘And I’ll organise a product placement from Chrysler. I think they’ll go for it, especially if we suggest the Met is eventually going to house the series. I’ll use my contacts over at Saatchi NY – they’ll know the car guys.’

‘Good thi

nking. So Chrysler it is.’ Susie stared down at the original print, imagining the central semi-nude woman reclining now on the bonnet and not the chair. In her mind’s eye the image was slowly transforming into a politically transgressive statement – which was exactly the effect she was striving for.

‘So we have American consumerism, an ironic take on the industry of “occidental erotica”. Is there any other subtext you’re looking for?’ Alfie asked her, a wry smile playing across his lips. ’I mean other than your usual discourse on the erotic gaze?’

‘Don’t knock it; it’s your meat and potatoes,’ Susie joked, enjoying his irreverence. She glanced back down at the print. ‘I think it might appeal to me unconsciously because if you look at it from another perspective the male is servicing the woman, she isn’t necessarily servile but empowered. Muriel?’

‘Oh, I don’t know why you always ask me, I’m just the prop-maker. But as usual it’s only going to work if we go down the usual hyperreal route.’

‘Well, for a start the Minnie Mouse ears will have to be very shiny, almost as if they are made of black glossy human hair, to reference the original painting. Plus it will look fantastic under the lights. With regard to the fans, I’ll research the correct cream antique silk, then get the TWA logo printed onto it. Any thoughts on the masks the characters will be wearing?’

‘I’m thinking they should come from stock characters that feature in Chinese opera,’ Susie suggested.

‘Right, this time I do know something about that,’ Muriel offered in her clipped English accent. ‘Different-coloured masks mean different emotions. White means sinister, treacherous – usually a white mask is worn by a villain. Green means impulsive, violent. Red is loyal and brave. Black – fierce and indifferent. Yellow, ambitious. Blue, steadfast. And pink, happy-go-lucky… How you incorporate that, I don’t know. I think to use the colours for each whole mask would clutter the image and pull the eye away from the central motif?’

Susie gazed at the print, narrowing her eyes as she tried to imagine how the faces would look, covered in thin polyester resin masks painted to replicate exactly the simplified doll-like faces on the original erotic painting.

‘You’re right.’ She rested an index finger on the forehead of the central figure. ‘Make the masks so that they look exactly like the original characters, but we’ll paint a dot on each forehead, like a bullet hole, in the symbolic colours – black for the central woman getting screwed, green for the man, blue for the young girl looking over the shoulder of the reclining woman, pink for the female servant on the left and yellow for the older female servant on the right.’

‘Brilliant! Then your Chinese viewers will be able to read the meaning of these “bullet holes”, creating a whole other narrative – even an emotional dynamic between the characters?’ Alfie responded.

‘Exactly. Our central woman will be the villain of the piece – possibly a corrupting influence on the man, whose green dot defines him as impulsive. The young girl looking over the shoulder will be marked as steadfast, perhaps not even that curious, while the older female servant on the right will read as ambitious – as is shown by her yellow dot – while the female servant on the left is happy-go-lucky; she also appears to have her left hand hidden under her robe, possibly between her thighs. I suspect she might be enjoying the scene a little more actively than the other onlookers.’

Susie’s mind was firing; it was as if she could imagine the narrative unfolding, all of the tension behind the characters and in the physical space between them. This would feed into the actual re-enactment later – a direct influence on the styling. After years of working with Susie, the team had developed a creative shorthand she still found thrilling.

‘That’s going to make great reading in the catalogue; the PhD students will have a field day. I’ll tip off our guy in Shanghai,’ Alfie said, already thinking about the marketing.

‘And the robes, Susie – I assume you want them to be reproduced exactly?’ Muriel was writing furiously.