Come see The First Monday in May for the fashion, stay for the cultural insensitivity. The First Monday in May feels like a documentary created to exploit the successful wake of The Devil Wears Prada, but lacks the focus of The September Issue. The First Monday in May is about how The Metropolitan Museum of Art, better known as the Met, prepares for its annual gala, which is its biggest fundraising event. The feature of the 2015 gala is a fashion exhibit titled China: Through the Looking Glass. Andrew Bolton, the chief curator of the Costume Institute at the Met, works with Anna Wintour, the editor-in-chief of Vogue, on the gala. The First Monday in May tackles several themes: fashion as art, the role of commerce in art and personal/professional profiles of Bolton and Wintour.
I grew up in NYC. I spent a summer in 1989 working at the Met. When I was a kid, I would obsessively save change to buy Vogue monthly. Whenever I visit NYC, I usually visit the Met. I used to navigate the Met without a floor plan. I have nothing but adoration and love for the Met and Vogue. I was prepared to watch The First Monday in May as pure, enjoyable entertainment with my critical eye put away for the weekend. I did not see China: Through the Looking Glass, and I did not hear any actual complaints about the actual exhibit before watching the documentary. I am not Chinese and obviously defer to Chinese cultural critics’ assessment of The First Monday in May, but I am a human being. I was appalled by the exhibit creators’ cultural insensitivity as revealed in The First Monday in May.
Bolton’s concept behind China: Through the Looking Glass is to create a fashion exhibit inspired by filmmakers and Western designers’ concept of China, not an actual history of Chinese fashion from the past to the present day. Considering the controversy of Asian depictions in or lack thereof in films created in Hollywood, this concept is slightly alarming and inherently problematic. The First Monday in May later illustrates this problem during an interview with John Galliano who references geishas! Geishas are Japanese. No correction is shown in the documentary. Jean Paul Gauthier jokes that it is even better to imagine China than actually go there and the privileging of the fantasy of China over the reality is further excused because fashion is fantasy. I wonder how Bolton would feel if there was an exhibit on the fantasy of Leicester, UK, or if we made a fashion exhibit about designers inspired by France and encouraged people not to go to France and only used two French fashion designers.
Bolton is trying to distance himself from the label of a one hit wonder after his success with the Alexander McQueen exhibit from 2011 called Savage Beauty yet he dismisses any concerns and lacks any empathy that Chinese audiences may be annoyed that his vision for the exhibit is more interested in fetishization of China’s past than present. His Chinese critics are mostly reporters, Wendy Murdoch and other Chinese people who provide support to the Met. One reporter complains, “It seems like the more contemporary version of China is not really included in this inventory…fantasy is very likely also to entail misperceptions.” Bolton hires the filmmaker, Kar-wai Wong, to work on the exhibit and briefly defers to Kar-Wai who chastises him for seeking controversy when Bolton suggests placing Mao’s jacket in a room full of Buddhas. I only saw two Chinese people who actually worked at the Met, and they appeared to be junior to Bolton and are Bolton’s subordinates, not necessarily experts who can question him in his area of expertise. Are you telling me that there is NO CHINESE PERSON WITH A MASTERS IN ART WHO ALSO KNOWS ABOUT FASHION? Bolton wants to be the unquestioned smartest person in the room with his qualifications and dismisses Chinese people’s concerns as political. Wintour backs Bolton unquestionably. Bolton thinks that by using words like racism, colonialism and Orientalism and having two Chinese fashion designers, Guo Pei and Lawrence Yu, in the exhibit, they are sufficient shields against possible claims that he is repeating the sins of the past.
The only substantial voice of dissent is Mike Hearn, the Douglas Dillon Chairman of Asian Art at the Met. In a sea of British voices, who never sounded more colonialistic than in The First Monday in May, Hearn made America proud by constantly urging for respect, “My goal is just to make sure that Chinese objects look their best and aren’t overshadowed or demeaned by what we do designwise.” Hearn is the kind of ally that I would want in a room representing my interests even if he did not necessarily win. Hearn unflinchingly admits the art community’s past sins. Hearn says, “China has been taken advantage of, misunderstood by the West.” Hearn then works hard to not repeat them, “What is the key for the success of all of this is that there is some conversation with the Chinese works of art so it is not just wall paper.” Hearn is more concerned about losing the actual respect of and marginalizing Chinese people whereas Bolton wants to gain legitimacy by fantasizing about actual people’s lives and not deal with the fallout of that fantasy on Chinese people.
The First Monday in May tries to frame Hearn’s criticism as the fuddy duddy and part of the old school Met who doesn’t get fashion and is trying to retain the literal physical dominance of the exhibit space while the Costume Institute is relegated to the basement. Hearn cautions, “I think bringing Western fashion into the Chinese galleries could be perceived as misinterpretation of who Chinese are and what Chinese culture is all about.” Met’s Director, Thomas P. Campbell, responded, “But there’s plenty of other things for people to see.” Hearn does not back down from his boss, “I just want to exercise as much discretion as possible so nobody comes around and says we’re using Chinese art as a stage prop.”
Things are bad when a showman like Baz Luhrmann has to be the voice of restraint in the décor design of the exhibit. Please note that they listen to Luhrmann’s criticism because he is one of the cool kids. If fashion is art, it is the cool kid in high school, and if you are not part of the clique, which apparently includes filmmakers, then you do not matter.
Racism is not only using slurs. Racism is dismissing actual people’s concerns and voices when they challenge your concept of what other people’s lives are like. Bolton is now the Head Curator of the Met’s Costume Institute in part because of the success of China: Through the Looking Glass. Campbell is the Director of the Met. They are the new face of inadvertent intolerance-sophisticated, fashionable, expert and dismissive in their pursuit for legitimacy and success. For a man so expert in fantasy, Bolton lacks imagination when he is thinking of others who are not like him. Bolton wants understanding and respect while giving none to others. Only watch The First Monday in May if you want to feel like me: disappointed in the future of a beloved institution and an emerging discipline in art that is finally getting its due.