ALEXANDER SI
Birkin

August 10 - September 4, 2023
opening reception Aug 10 6-8 pm

Home Gallery is pleased to announce “Birkin”, a solo exhibition by Alexander Si on view from August 10th to September 4th, 2023. The artist handmade an exact replica of a Birkin handbag from the French luxury brand Hermès, paired with a video work illustrating the making of the bag. The bag took 72 hours to complete with every stitch hand-sewn by the artist. With the close proximity of the window gallery location to Chinatown’s Canal street, “Birkin” contemplates on the glamorization of labor behind ultra-luxury goods and what it means for a Chinese American immigrant to replicate the bag and display it at a storefront window.

The Birkin was named after the English-French actress and singer Jane Birkin. The design is a collaboration between Jane Birkin and Hermès CEO Jean-Louis Dumas. The two met on a flight from Paris to London in 1984. Birkin confided in Dumas that she lacked a purse with appropriate functionality for her fast-paced lifestyle. Together, they drafted the design on an airplane paper bag featuring two rolled handles, a flap top, clou “feet,” a lock closure, and the Birkin handbag was born.

The bags are handmade in France using the company's signature saddle stitching, developed in the 1800s. Each bag is hand-sewn by a single artisan, and is then buffed, painted, and polished, taking up to 18 hours to make. Artisans purportedly train for five years before they are allowed to make their first Birkin bag. Leathers are obtained from different tanners in France, resulting in varying smells and textures.

Hermès also employs an impenetrable retail system to limit the yearly production and sales of the Birkin, meaning there is no way you can walk into a Hermès store to purchase a Birkin. There is a designated waitlist and one has to be an existing customer with an amount of purchase history and in good standing with your designated sales associate to get on the list. Birkins are distributed to Hermès boutiques on unpredictable schedules and in limited quantities, creating artificial scarcity and exclusivity.

A bag made of Niloticus Crocodile skin (also known as the White Himalayan) with diamond-encrusted white-gold hardware was sold at auction by Christie's in Hong Kong for a record price of US$380,000 (HK$2.94 million) in May 2017. Thus Birkin bags are feverishly collected by the upper echelons and celebrities across the world for its investment value and cultural cache. They have flooded the upscale resale and subsequently counterfeit market, and are frequently resold in second-hand boutiques, auction houses and nowadays, through social media.

Follow more of his work at:
www.alexandersi.com
@alexandersi