Amsterdam’s Historical Museum is opening an exhibition about the Red Light District under the name “The Hoerengracht” (The Whore Canal).
Eleven ladies of the night sit behind windows lit up with red lights in an ally. In a grubby room, a tailor’s dummy is dressed as a prostitute, the radio plays Another Day in Paradise. Many of the dummies' faces are framed, the glass is glazed with a layer of veneer. Some of the windows in the exhibition display bizarre sexual poses.
The exhibition has been put together by Ed and Nancy Kienholz, who built a three-dimensional reconstruction of the Dutch capital's Red Light District in the 1980s. Last year it went on display at the National Gallery in London.
Although the work is inspired by the couple’s visits to the Dutch capital, the installation has never been seen in the Netherlands before.
Ed Kienholz, who died in 1994, was famous for his installations dealing with mental illness, abortion and the porn industry.
The exhibition comes as Amsterdam's city council is trying to clean up the the famous Red Light District. A number of "windows", where scantily-dressed prostitutes sit on display waiting for their clients have been bought up by the council and reallocated to art students, some of whom have placed tailor's dummies in the windows instead. It seems to be a case of life copying art.
The exhibition is on view at Amsterdam’s Historic Museum from 20 March until 29 August.
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