The Curtain

Anyone interested in culture and ideology will be familiar with Eric Hobsbawm's concept of 'invented tradition'. Here, historical narratives are constructed to create a sense of collective
identity that, in turn, serves to maintain hierarchical societal structures. The headscarf worn by many Muslim women, for example, is for the most part a relict dating from the German
'völkisch' movement. BR1's work centers around dress codes that articulate identity, and on the implications of such dress codes. He depicts women who are obliged to wear such symbols of "purity", or who wear them for reasons of religious and cultural identity (naturally, the two sometimes overlap), contrasting them with attributes associated with Western culture such as red lipstick, hamburgers, chewing gum, machine gun cartridges and cans of Coca-Cola. But his pieces succeed in giving these contrasts a sense of perspective. He bases his work on the principle that, under such ideologically prescribed clothing euphemistically referred to as culture, are people, people just like you and me.