The ideas of Rene Cigler are not visualized in one particular art discipline but in a whole spectrum of different appearances. From theatrical costumes to erotic art photography and from paintings trough strange morbid sculptures. The focus here is on her erotic photographs. They show woman wearing strange headsets, body armor or other intriguing body decorations made with all kind of different materials, from metal to junk.
Not only the Adornments themselves are strange beautiful objects, but also the photography has it’s own feel and quality. The both are so supplementing each other that I can hardly describe them separated. In my opinion the technical fantasy style is perfectly integrated in the ‘aged’ or ‘vintage’ photo style approach.
My first encounter with the work of Rene Cigler was with one of these Adornment Images. The strange surreal atmosphere, the ‘decent’ nudity and the aged appearance were pointing in the direction of a Man Ray original. But I was totally wrong in my assumption, the strange nude woman warrior was not one of Man Ray’s images but a small glimpse of a fascinating world created by Cigler.
Somehow the images are remaining me of old movies where the future of the world is created with the technical acknowledgement of that time. No computer driven robots, but mechanical ones. Combine this old style futurism with some mystical, or maybe religious influences and you have a real unique set of images that are quite encouraging to explore.
The Adornment objects are empowering the Goddess in the wearer the artist is explaining on her website. Many of these pieces were seen by tens of thousands when they were worn onstage by Rene’s dancers as visual support for the band Ministry during the lollapalooza tour.
