The Opportunity Passed in Less Than a Minute

The Opportunity Passed in Less Than a Minute is Adriana Preda’s first solo show at SEQUENCE, Suprainfinit Gallery, alongside a performance at the opening on fashion trends, vitrine merchandised displays, and adjectives-labels used in relation with clothes. Working with existing garments gathered from family members or flea markets, Adriana Preda transforms the clothing and textiles into sculptural compositions that encapsulate delicate moments in time. The exhibition title is loosely borrowed from Roy Montgomery’s song, referring to momentary trends that become difficult to grasp, where attention is shifted to the one and only, the compulsive, the fleeting moment that is so easy to lose – the present. Functioning as a display for worn out pieces, including her mother’s frilly bride dress, the vitrine becomes a space for a bumpy aesthetic driven by its excesses and fantasies, by piling up the garments into liberating feminist creatures. Pinterest, the moodboarding platform, has prophetically declared 2023 as the year of otherworldly bows, lace, tulle and hearts; Bows that delicately adorn, reminiscent of a gift waiting to be unwrapped; tulle skirts that twirl and dance in pixelated landscapes; petals suspended in the ephemeral glow of the screen; hearts, not just as symbols but as digital beats resonating through curated feeds; These elements accumulate new characteristics over time through real-time labeling and associations with femininity and youth within popular hashtags #hotgirlwalks, #strawberrygirl, #cleangirl. Roland Barthes wrote about this in his fashion study, when he said, you know what, I believe that fashion is, in the end, a language: “it is not the object but the name that creates desire; it is not the dream but the meaning that sells” 1 . Or maybe the youtuber Natalie Wynn explained it more clearly in one of her videos ’’Words words words - what do they even fucking mean?!’’. Adriana Preda is using specific words in her performance, in alphabetical order, designating contrasting labels used both in the fashion industry and the artworld. ’’Iconic’’ meets ’’Basic’’, ’’Itchy’’ meets ’’Edgy’’, and ’’Artificial’’, ’’Elegant’’ and ’’Old’’ take a graceful turn with ’’Predictable’’. The performance is an exploration of the nuances that reside in the spaces between seemingly opposing labels, willing to resist the transitory nature of trends.