All My Clothes

In All My Clothes, Charles Ray models the contents of his closet in sequence, from heavy winter wear on the left to shorts and T-shirt on the right. The camera position, the nondescript setting, and Ray’s lackluster posture and blank expression remain the same in each of the sixteen snapshots. This matter-of-fact inventory of the artist’s wardrobe opposes the traditional idea that art provides catharsis, transcendence, or some sort of profundity. Ray uses his body and the camera as utilitarian tools to probe art’s more literal, objective, and even “dumb” side. Just as the artist presents himself as simply a body for displaying his clothes, which provide little insight into his interiority or subjectivity, the photographs are straightforward vehicles for visual information delivery.