Title: GILLETTE’S VISION
Artist: Anne de Vries
Year: 2014
Dimensions: Various
Materials: Double-sided UV prints on Photo Forex, PVC, mirror, coated metal hanging system, screws, Gillette razors, clothing.
Documentation: E_MERGE solo exhibition at Foam Amsterdam
Conceptual Background:
This body of work engages The Dream of King Camp Gillette and his radical vision of a future urban society. Long before he became known for inventing the safety razor and founding a major industrial enterprise, King Camp Gillette (1855–1932) published books and pamphlets proposing a new economic and social order.
In The Human Drift, his first major tract, Gillette introduced the idea of “Metropolis,” a single, technologically advanced megacity designed to accommodate the entire population apart from agricultural and rural labor. He conceived this city as a centralized and fully integrated system, constructed through modern materials and governed by “The United Company,” an all-encompassing organization responsible for producing and distributing the necessities of life.
While often associated with utopian literature such as Edward Bellamy’s Looking Backward, Gillette’s proposal exceeds literary speculation. It advances a sincere and highly idiosyncratic model of urban and social engineering. “Metropolis” thus emerges as a verbal prototype for an industrial future defined by total organization, efficiency, and control.
Artistic Approach:
The work draws on photographs of Gillette shaving products, transforming them into sculptural forms and layered visual structures. In doing so, it connects Gillette’s utopian urban vision to the sleek industrial design language of his shaving systems.