Has a carousel horse ever looked sexier?

fashionstylebeauty.com

I'm back in Melbourne, Australia now, frantically applying for grants to fund my residency in New York next April. I'm looking forward to spending time there to further investigate the carousels that I briefly touched on a few weeks ago. I'm preparing for my exhibition at the end of November at BUS Projects, sitting on the edge of my seat while I wait for Australian Customs to call me. You see, I brought home two horses tails and yep, you guessed it, Australia was going to have none of that! They are at the fumigators as we speak. Hopefully no damage will eventuate and I will receive them in plenty of time.

A few weeks ago, I was sitting in a local beauty salon in L.A waiting for my turn to have my eyebrows waxed, when I came across this image in a magazine. It is L.A based company, Joe's Jeans Fall 2011 Collection campaign. Creative Director Joe Dahan and filmmaker/photographer Tao Ruspoli are responsible for the Fellini-esque16 second video commercial and the images associated with the campaign.

Ten shots make up this black and white commercial, with French music complimenting the circus theme. The scene begins with a puff of smoke entering the screen, seemingly from a faceless figure wearing a hat. The actress Paz de la Huerta introduces herself to what appears to be an interviewer off camera. She looks down and away as she begins to announce her name. As she says her name, the scene quickly cuts to three different shots of the actress; writing on a dresser mirror with lipstick, but we don't see what it is that she is writing, swinging on a large circus ring while fondling her hair and then reverse 'cowgirl'ing a carousel horse.

Back to the mirror scene we go where we see her looking at herself announcing 'These jeans are pretty sexy'. We notice the writing on the mirror 'I <3 Joes'. The scene then cuts to a man wearing a beanie throwing a knife which lands near the actresses head as she is strapped to a spinning wheel. He attempts to kiss her and she violently pulls away, rejecting his affections, but not before almost being seduced.

Again, back to the mirror we go and so does the actress, climbing up and onto the dressing table, posing and rocking on all fours with her bottom protruding outwardly. The commercial ends with her back on the carousel horse, alone but looking satisfied.

This commercial has voyeuristic overtones and portrays the carousel in the most sexiest way I have come across so far. Very little is said by the actress during the 16 second clip. Basically, she tells us her name and then announces the jeans she is wearing are sexy, even though her movements and actions are telling us a lot more. The jeans are sexy indeed becuase she is making them sexy. The actress has total control over what we are watching, telling us that we think she is sexy, even if she is using her jeans as a guise for what she knows of herself.

Now I don't want to be giving you all a sex education but the 'reverse cowgirl' position suggests the woman is sexually superior/dominant to her partner (the carousel horse), and with the voyeuristic overtones,  superior to us as the viewer. The image below allows us to have a closer look at the very short shot of the scene. I do love how the horse holds a pose that seems to react to the woman who is reverse cowgirling, holding it's head ever so that way so she may be comfortable on it's back.  The horse definitely exudes character and is definitely participating in the act itself.

I really do like what the filmmakers have done with this ad campaign. It oozes confident female sexuality within the confines of the old world circus days; a slice of life from yesteryear portraying a contemporary woman and item of clothing within a classic turn of the 20th century setting.