Working in the tradition of Georgia O’Keefe and Karl Blossfeldt is American photographer Arthur Meehan whose latest collection of prints recently exhibited in London at the Jonathan Cooper Park Walk Gallery
Tulip-2, by Arthur A Meehan
I really like the sepia, old-school feel that’s somehow in keeping with the current love of all things nostalgic. The unique effect of these images is achieved by photographing the flowers inside a wine box, hence the name!
For a recent interiors shoot, the team at Wallpaper* went underground in France to the Maginot Line a system of bunkers, tunnels and forts created along the French border with Germany in the build up to World War II. Photographers Alexandre Guirkinger and Elodie Tinel made a gorgeous behind-the-scenes film of the editorial shoot with great music, styling and imagery that mixes the past with the contemporary. Check it out at Wallpaper*:
The making of Wallpaper's Maginot Line interiors shoot
Posted in interior design
I’m wondering if there’s a self-fulfilling prophesy around this subject. Maybe critical thinking around design isn’t taught widely enough, perhaps writers are scared to have too strong an opinion or fear it might put readers off, and maybe there’s a lack of print outlets? It’s something that Swedish writer and curator Frida Jeppson has been grappling with and she has just edited an excellent book on the subject called In case of Design – inject critical thinking. Definitely worth a read.
It was whilst scanning her blog that I found the work of Swedish artist Elisabeth Möllersten who recently graduated from Konstfack University College of Arts Crafts and Design in Stockholm
Her piece ‘Vanitas ‘caught my eye. The silver, porcelain version is elegant and the melting chocolate one seems even more gothic and acts as a critique materialism and over-consumption.
It’s best appreciated as a film:
VANITAS Elisabeth Möllersten 2010
As we’re gearing up towards production of our own fabrics I’m even more tuned in to trends in handmade textiles – knitting and lace are noticeable. Having just missed Studio Tord Boontje’s exhibition The Lacemaker I next came across the work of a Danish designer/artist called Isabel Berglunds. She’s made a knitted universe, which is great and you can see it here:
Isabel Berglund’s knit universe
Speaking of Scandinavians….
It’s so incredible to think that an artist of such talent and importance is only now having her first solo show at a European institution! Luckily the Whitechapel Gallery has a big exhibition of her work on now and I got around to going this weekend. It’s a must-see and on leaving I really wanted a keepsake but sadly the shop had sold out of catalogues. Instead I consoled myself with this mesmerising silent film of Alice at work online at Nowness.com.
Alice Neel In Action 1969
Filmed by her son Hartley whilst she was in the process of painting a portrait of his wife, you get the feeling of her intense concentration and dedication to making the work. For just a taste of how prolific Neel was during her seventy-year career have a look through the online gallery on the official Alice Neel website. There you’ll see the real breadth of her subjects; she painted strangers, beggars and children as well as famous artists like Richard Smithson and Andy Warhol whose portrait shows the grace and candour of both the artist and her sitter. Neel thought her paintings revealed the souls of her subjects but many believe they tell you quite a bit about her feelings too. This is what makes her work so moving and honest. Here’s my favourite example:
The Soyer Brothers 1973, © Estate of Alice Neel
Starting out in the 1920s and forging a career as a professional female artist can’t have been easy. Neel’s passion and confidence in what she was doing is admirable; more so once you uncover the details and complexities of her personal life including a bitter ex-partner and a mental breakdown. But it’s her influence that can’t be denied (artists like Elizabeth Peyton spring to mind) and though this might be the first major exhibition of her work for sometime but I’ve an inkling a resurgence of interest in Alice Neel is just around the corner.
On until 17th September at the Whitechapel Gallery
Less is more was the order of the day at this year’s Milan furniture fair. Visitors and press alike wondered ‘does the world need more chairs?’ So in tune with leaner economic times and a greater social and environmental conscience, the newly launched products had a pared down feel. Designers focused on how things are made, exposed construction methods and celebrated traditional craftsmanship skills. The natural state and shape of materials was shown off.
This simplified feel calls to my mind the landscape designer Jacques Wirtz. He might be in his 80s but he’s so relevant, creating clean, beautiful sculptural forms that are refreshing and highly in step with what’s being produced by younger designers across interiors, furniture and product. It’d be great to see him create something for Milan one year.
Jaques Wirtz hedges, private garden
Jaques Wirtz hedges, private garden
Jacques Wirtz, private garden
Jacques Wirtz hedges, private garden
Trade fairs are still an essential part of doing business in this industry but these events are expensive, short-lived and incredibly wasteful, really taking their toll on the world’s resources. Not in keeping with current thinking around environmental issues. ‘Saved by Droog’ picked up on our desire to take better care of our planet, inviting a range of designers (nicknamed ‘revivers’) to recycle and upcycle over 5000 items rescued from liquidation sales.
At Moroso there was talk in emotional tones, new designs were developed around words such as ‘memory’, ‘wellbeing’ and ‘intimacy’. In their showroom, the company presented ‘Tumbleweed’, an installation by two artists Francesco Simeti and Andrea Sala that juxtaposed the prevailing trend for plain, angular furniture with large-scale prints inspired by travel and journeys – both real and imagined – to invigorate the overall space. Similarly at Poliform a blowsy, bold print by Ken Scott was used to upholster sharp, modern pieces.
Moroso, Tumbleweed by artists Francesco Simeti and Andrea Sala
Poliform, Ken Scott print
Posted in art, craft, design, interior design, product design, trends
There seems to be a growing interest in hauntology, a term coined by French philosopher Jacques Derrida in the early 90s. Its current meaning is best described as the intangible effect of a thing or feeling, generated by the emotional influence of the past, on what is being created in the present. At the moment, I’m noticing it most in music, in fact The Wire magazine recently hosted ‘Revenant Forms: the Meaning of Hauntology’, a salon of experimental music and ideas around the subject..
When I was at college we studied Derrida, which led me towards trying out his deconstruction theory in textiles. I experimented with the construction of a repeat pattern by taking it apart and putting it back together again and also played with Cyanotype – a technique of transferring large-scale photographic images onto fabric.
But aside from Derrida, hauntology links with a noticeable and growing trend; the longing for things that remind us of the past. It’s been manifesting itself as a gradual fondness for retro–feeling interiors and products and the popularity of vintage-inspired, shabby chic interiors; second-hand clothes that have a ‘story’ behind them, the phrase ‘loveworn’ increasingly being used in fashion journalism; comfort food and classic British favourites finding their way onto menus in expensive restaurants; ‘Keep Calm and Carry On’ posters.
But it’s not necessarily just about flowers, chintz and bunting. You can detect it in Jacques Wirtz’s work who I mentioned in the post about Milan. Architect David Chipperfield’s Neues Museum in Berlin beautifully marries the past with the contemporary, one informing the other to create a brand new kind of experience.
David Chipperfiled Neues Museum
And last year Muji teamed up with Thonet and Konstantin Grcic to reinterpret Thonet’s famous curved wood chairs – the original design of which was first created 150 years ago.
Thonet Muji chair
Once you’re aware of hauntology it makes absolute sense, and you can’t escape it!
Posted in trends
I stumbled across this website and it literally brightened up my day! It’s called the Let’s Colour Project. Initiated by Dulux but powered by the people, it combines photos and films of people taking it upon themselves to tart up dreary walls and neglected buildings, as well as pictures of anything bright and cheerful that has been spotted around world. Here are two of my favourites from the Let’s Colour blog:
The vibrant colours of the Jodhpur old city markets in India.
Colourful calico drop sheet art
At the weekend I popped into town to have a look at some of the 250 elephants that have been painted by well known designers and artists which are scattered all over London for WWF. It’s worth looking at the Elephant map there is an awful lot of them!!!.
I like this one by artist Patrice Moor called Josephine she looks beautiful wrapped up in a coat of flowers, you can spot her at Sloane Square.
Patrice Moor’s elephant ‘Josephine’
But if you miss seeing them in situ you can see the entire herd at the Royal Hospital Chelsea from 24th June – 4th July.
The Museum of Everything Exhibition #1 Guide
For those of you that were fortunate to visit The Museum of Everything (see my November blog) you will be very interested to know that there is to be an event # 2 which not only can you visit but you can enter your art work as well !!
Here is the info from the lovely people at Museum Of Everything:
CALLING THE UNTRAINED, UNINTENTIONAL & UNSEEN CREATORS OF GREATER BRITAIN.
The Museum of EVERYTHING
Exhibition #2 @ Tate Modern
THE MUSEUM OF EVERYTHING
NEW! Exhibition #2 @ Tate Modern NEW!
On Friday May 14th, Saturday May 15th and Sunday May 16th 2010, The Museum of Everything will present Exhibition #2 at London’s Tate Modern, featuring the unknown, untrained, unintentional and unexhibited artwork submitted during the show itself.
If you are a self-taught or non-traditional artist, or if you know one, or if you have discovered something we ought to see, bring it to the Tate Modern and hang it next to a couple of Rothko’s. For details on how, when, where, what and why, click here, my dear.
Again at the V&A, Grace Kelly Style Icon as the title suggests, traces her journey from actress, bride, princess to fully fledged icon by focusing on Kelly’s style with dresses, jewellery, hats and bags that made up her legendary look. Like Kelly herself, the exhibition is very well put together. There is some great film footage of scenes of her with Gary Cooper and Frank Sinatra, you can see more of her on Pathé of her early days as a model before her film career had really taken off.
The exhibition is very much about what she represented and her persona as opposed to just a series of garments. It makes you wonder about the meshing of her real personality with her starring roles and question which was more influential on how she dressed. Was Kelly’s style molded by Hitchcock and wardrobe designer Edith Head (after all, the studio even made Kelly’s wedding dress and honeymoon outfit), or was this Kelly’s natural look and they created the costumes and characters to match? Either way, the result was effortless and enduring – a style that was simple, understated and elegant, which she seemed to exude in her acting as well as her off-screen presence.
Very GK.
There are a few unexpected pieces to be seen. I loved the black floral dress (wearing pattern was untypical of Kelly) this is the dress she wore to the Cannes festival and on her meeting with Prince Rainer.
Lovingly hand made, full of stories and life celebrations documented with tender stitches, Quilts, the exhibition at the V&A is a really wide source of interesting culture studies. As I’m working on a new range of textiles, going to see this was great timing in terms of getting me really fired up!
The amount of beautiful printed fabrics dating way back acts like a documentary of the fashions and fabrics available at the time. It’s fascinating to see how fabrics were saved and stored, perhaps expectantly watched whilst being worn in the hope that one day that they (the quilters) could get their scissors and needles out to fashion the item into a bedcover. In fact, I could have studied the prints in each of the early quilts for hours, so amazing is the amount of pattern and colour that was used, some of the pieces were made up of 15 or 20 different prints. And even though they have aged, you can sort of feel the crispness of the prints on the cottons.
Bishops Court quilt, Unknown, 1690-1700. Museum no. T.201-1984
Calico and cotton lawns, pale blues with brown, typical 1800s seaweed designs mixed with tiny dotted paisleys, yellows with soft purple circles… I was enthralled by the intricacy, effort and detail, by the tiny circles and smallness of some of the patches but then patience isn’t my virtue!
It was interesting to see the reverse of a quilt so you could see the newspaper pattern pieces which are still in place, you can even make out some of the old newsprint.
I have always admired Sonia Delaunay’s quilt she made for her son Charles, it’s such a personal celebration for a child’s birth that can handed down the generations.
Sonia Delaunay baby quilt for Charles, 'Couverture' 1911
This is what I love most about quilts; they are such an emotional and human product, so non-commercial and genuine in their purpose.
The early historical pieces from the 1700 and 1800s and the war quilts were particular fascinating but the exhibition also includes work by contemporary artists including Nina Saunders and Grayson Perry’s incredible ‘Right to Life’. They show how what is such a homely, cosy product can be appropriated for political and sociological messages; the AIDS Memorial quilt is perhaps the best-known example of this.
Grant Heap, Garden Chairs, Radiant Dark 2010: Assets & Values, Exhibition Toronto
Tracey Emin’s bed with quilts and embroidered cushions seems to relate to the comfort, security and warmth that bedcovers and quilts bring, again using specially saved fabrics and compiling them together with stitch and verse. Canadian artist Grant Heaps’ work isn’t included in this exhibition but naturally, the show reminded me of him, I love his quilts and the ‘quilt chairs’ are bang on the hand-made/folklore/crafted trend.
The exhibition also features quilts that were made for use in hospitals with biblical verse stitched in for the patients to read. I could see this idea being used today’s digital world. Wouldn’t it be great to read your book actually in the bedcovers, or to read little relaxing messages before you sleep?
The current trend and popularity for all things handmade and homemade, especially knitting, sewing, ceramics and so on, fits very well with the quilts from the past. In North America quilting is a much celebrated and loved craft (as proven by the sheer number of exhibitions devoted to the subject and huge number of active quilters). I’m half expecting quilting groups to spring up like those pub knitting groups – social gatherings that are such cooperative experiences.
There’s a lot to see and the exhibition is so beautifully and thoughtfully organised so I’m definitely going to go back to see this again.
Posted in craft, handmade, interior design, review, textiles
It’s always lovely to discover a new artist and this weekend I stumbled across the work of a lady called Georgie Hopton. Her exhibition ‘Cut and Come Again’ is partly like a grown-up version of potato prints! After successfully growing a vegetable garden at her home in the Catskills in 2005, she started photographing herself with her harvest. She then began using the vegetables as tools, dipping them in acrylic paint to create brightly coloured abstract prints on paper. Finally the vegetables and chopping board are cast in bronze. It’s an intriguing, playful and very personal series of work.
The show is part of the Nomad galleries programme and is therefore on in a space temporarily commandeered just for this exhibition so catch it while you can!
Cut and Come Again is organised Poppy Sebire and is at 232 King’s Road, London SW3 5UD until May 29th 2010.
Seeing Lucienne Day’s prints at the Sanderson exhibition reminded me of the legacy she has left behind. Her designs for them such as ‘Nautlaus’ and her revolutionary print ‘Calyx’, created as part of the Festival of Britain, set her on the path to becoming one of our most sought-after textiles designers with a clear and distinctive visual style of her own. Often compared to their contemporaries Charles and Ray Eames, they did share some similarities but with one fundamental difference – the Eames’ often designed as a team whereas the Days usually worked independently in separate fields.
Rig by Lucienne Day for Heals Ltd., 1953
As well as Sanderson, from the 1950s onwards Lucienne Day had a whole range of successful collaborations including those with Liberty, Habitat, John Lewis Partnership, Rosenthal and Heal’s with whom she worked for 20 years, creating more than 70 patterns. It was a boom time for freelance designers and pattern was popular so she produced a prolific amount of work – textiles, carpets, ceramics, wallpapers – linking mass production and fine art.
Read more about Lucienne’s legacy at Design Museum.org
Sadly Lucienne Day passed away at the start of this year but with the timeless quality of her work, her importance and influence as a designer surely she will always be a role model.
Lucienne Day London 1997 by Anne-Katrin Purkiss
You can still buy her work from classictextiles.com
Posted in design
Although there are a few of Tracey Neuls’ shoes and a chair by Nina Saunders in the Fashion and Textiles Museum show, I would recommend a visit to Neuls’ store on Marylebone Lane to see more at ‘Most Curious’ a collaboration between Tracey Neuls, Nina Saunders and Sanderson. It uses textiles and wallpaper resurrected from Sanderson’s archive applied to footwear and sculpture. Anchoring the installation is an incredible ‘melting’ chaisse longue and the display also includes Neuls’ use of the wonderful squirrel prints by Sanderson for her fabulous spring/summer collection. It’s a playful, lovely installation.
Most Curious Installation
Tracey Neuls’ shoes made with a selection from Sanderson’s archives
