Not

Forever:

Georgina

Maxim’s

‘Telling

Moments’

at

Goodman

Gallery

Georgina Maxim’s 'Telling Moments' is on at Goodman Gallery in London until September, at street level, just next to the stairs, and opposite where the gallery assistant sits, in that weird part of Mayfair characterised by commercial galleries, gleaming pavement (you can literally see the gallery interns sweeping them every morning if you time it right) and very, very expensive handbags. So: a room of clothing, but they’re not clothes – look again. Here is a shirt, butterflied and filleted, draped and fastened – or most of a shirt, anyway, its armscye barely recognisable. Here are flounces and frills of so many skirts, gathered into each other, their pleats and folds magnified by their assembly. These works are like skins, stretched onto tanning frames, their edges pulled taut and the clever tricks of their construction laid bare for us to see. They’re both under tension and draped, which is interesting, and they wear it a bit awkwardly, put upon. This kind of applique does not facilitate the kind of fluidity required to drape, and so the undulations of these surfaces look like model landscapes, their creases hard-won. I catch myself trying to see the shapes of the original garments below the embroidery when I look at them – is that a collar? And then – a button band?