The timing of Jennie Ottinger's Princess Series is fairly astounding. This thoroughly absorbing exhibition of paintings documents pivotal moments in Princess Diana's life-and it just happened to open the very same week that her former husband finally ascended to the throne. Once upon a time, she was supposed to be sitting next to him. As the rest of the world bears witness to the solemn pageantry of Elizabeth II's official mourning period, Ottinger's show is a pertinent reminder that the royal institution isn't all it's cracked up to be.
The full title of the San Francisco artist's show is, amusingly, Bad Luck Dutch, Your Face is on the Tea Towels: The Princess Series. It's named after the exact (flippant) phrasing that one of Diana's sisters used when the bride-to-be wondered before her wedding if a marriage to Prince Charles was a good idea after all. The dark humor inherent in the title is a thread that runs through much of the artwork.
The paintings of The Princess Series, displayed in chronological order, reflect Diana's life from the time of her engagement in 1980 to the year of her death, 1997. The images are based on news footage, official photography and photos torn from the tabloids. If you have even a passing interest in the life of Diana, most of them will already be familiar to you. The joy of the series is that Ottinger's surreal renditions force us to look at those famous moments with fresh eyes and from new angles.
Ottinger's work, on the surface, can appear akin to controlled chaos. But in The Princess Series, the blank spaces the artist creates, the faces she leaves void, the features she grotesquely distorts, all provide pertinent commentary on hierarchy. The arc of the show presents a tale of who matters and who doesn't-who gets scrutinized and who gets to be a leering observer. (The wedding congregation depicted in Bride & Groom, 1981 is the stuff of nightmares.)...
Rae Alexandra
