“No! Wire! Hangers … ever!” The now famous line from 1981 kitsch classic Mommie Dearest depicted coat hangers as the bane of Joan Crawford’s existence (among other things). And while that might be true in the context of this docudrama, they’ve also been a consistent presence on film sets since the dawn of the moving image. Practical and ingenious, coat hangers come in all shapes and sizes. This simple domestic object has been handmade or manufactured in wood, metal, plastic or wire. (The wire ones could also be bent into a map-of-Australia car aerial!) Coat hangers are an essential tool in the costume department.
Curator Notes
Edie Kurzer is a celebrated Australian designer. Twice she has won the AACTA Award, the most prestigious prize for costume design in Australia, for her work on the iconic 6 part TV series Picnic at Hanging Rock (Foxtel /FremantleMedia) and the highly lauded ABC mini-series Molly. With Picnic she also won the coveted Australian Production Design Guild’s prize and in 2019 won it once more for the feature film Judy & Punch.
Over the past twenty-five years in Australia Edie has made crucial contributions to major productions such as: the Gillian Armstrong-directed documentary feature film Women He’s Undressed (about Orry Kelly); the influential TV mini-series Secret River and Violent Earth; and the feature films South Solitary (starring Miranda Otto), Look Both Ways, Matching Jack, and Thank God He Met Lizzie (starring Cate Blanchett, Richard Roxburgh and Frances O’Connor). She also designed costumes for Josh Thomas on his ground-breaking television series Please Like Me (season 4).
Internationally, Edie has worked with director Bill Bennett on both In a Savage land and Tempted (starring Burt Reynolds and Saffron Burrows) and with the renowned British film and theatre director Mike Leigh on the Royal Stratford Theatre’s production of A Greek Tragedy (London/Edinburgh/Sydney).
Edie has also collaborated in vital cultural and educational projects in Indigenous communities in major cities and in remote regions of Australia.
Related works
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Collection
Not in ACMI's collection
Previously on display
18 June 2023
ACMI: Gallery 1
Collection metadata
ACMI Identifier
183520
Curatorial section
The Story of the Moving Image → Foyer → Entry → FSF-02. Fed Sq Foyer Cabinets → FSF Cabinet 15
Object Types
3D Object
Diorama