Thrift shop on the 3rd floor of the Whitney

Bizarre. Wonderful. Delightful. Intriguing. But at the Whitney?

Charles LeDray has apparently spent the last twenty five years producing a collection of miniature clothes of the type that you would find in a warehouse thrift shop. Within the first room three areas are lit, each with its own linoleum floor, ceiling about three and a half feet up that covers the display, a circular clothes hanging display or a table with folded clothes presented. The ceiling really allows each room to have a miniature feel. In one of them there is a broom, fallen under the clothing rack but the friend who accompanied me and I both agreed it was the only disproportional item; its handle's length would have made it six or seven feet tall, which really is too long for a broom. But our noticing that goes to show to what degree a viewer can get involved in wanting to play and make a mess of all the items. There are hats, shirts, suits, jackets, most no larger than my hand, that is to say six inches...later there are hundreds (maybe thousands) of clay pots the size of my thumbnail, each of which have been individually thrown. There is one room where outfits that are displayed on miniature hangers are shredded at the bottom, or have a large hole in the middle of the chest. I could produce meaning here, but why bother it is so obvious and the show is better enjoyed with a sense of simple delight.

My favorite piece is a small (but nearly life-size) stuffed cat with a leg up licking its derrière, although I can't quite understand why it was titled "Pretty Teacher".

The work is described: Their intimate scale and materials poignantly evoke allusions to childhood memory, gender and class stereotypes, and wonder in the everyday.

Okay.

Now I do understand that miniatures convey all kinds of difficult concepts and can be the basis for art. I am sufficiently willing to believe this that I am about to read Susan Stewart's book On Longing: Narratives of the Miniature, the Gigantic, the Souvenir, the Collection. This may allow me to discuss the show more pedantically. More importantly it may help me understand why the show was at the Whitney because though I liked it, neither I nor my art history friend who accompanied me could quite grasp why it merited Whitney stature.