Game of Chance

This past fall I came across the result of a simple event - someone had dropped a pack of cards on the sidewalk. The wind had blown them around so they were next to things they were completely unrelated to. Or were they?

More Art Deco in Victoria

In the Royal BC Museum there are 2 Art Deco garments that are well worth the hunt to find.
This silk georgette evening dress, 1926-28, illustrates well the shock of the new. For the first time in European history women went out in public wearing garments that exposed their lower legs and the full length of their arms. These garments reflect the hard won freedoms women enjoyed for the short time between the wars in North America.

The dress is heavily embroidered with beads. Loops of seed beads make the red flowers in the floral bouquet 3 dimensional.
I am always fascinated by the strong bond between women and flowers.

Next to the dress, in the display cabinet, is this interesting hat. It too is an important social commentary on how women, for the first time, voluntarily cut off their 'crowning glory' as though they were removing a burden from the past. Then they covered up their heads in the Asian style, with form-fitting hats. It was such a shocking protest at the time. They seemed to want to remove the inequality of the gender issue so they could be seen as another human being.

The hat is covered with dense long and short stitch and ribbon couched down in a similar technique to quill work.
I don't know what to make of the design. Any suggestions?

Art Deco In Victoria BC Canada

One of the unique aspects of the Art Deco Movement is it 'moved' all around the world. Here in Victoria, where I live, I found some fine examples of well preserved Art Deco architecture.
In 1931 Imperial Oil built a 3 tiered garage on the waterfront inner harbour area of the city and topped it with a tower just like the one that had been built on the Palmolive Building in Chicago in 1929. Both towers had state-of-the-art navigational beacons put on top.

Today, Victoria's tower tops the Visitor Centre, a restaurant and tourist activity offices for harbour tours and whale watching.

The elegant Art Deco elements are still clearly visible.

For the final assignment for the JC School of Textile Art module I have just finished, I wrote an essay about how the step design element was used throughout the Art Deco Movement. I looked at the way these 'modern' skyscraper buildings were inspired by the stepped buildings in Mayan/Aztec and Egyptian civilisations. I found some very interesting links.

Art Deco in England

A box full of a semester's worth of Art Deco Movement research has been sent to England to be assessed. Phew! I am looking forward to a month's break but I thought you might like to see some more highly innovative fashion from the period, courtesy of Richard Martin's book.

This pink silk satin dress by Gabrielle Chanel has spiraling bias-cut panels encircling the body.

I may not agree with Richard's attempts to convince me these creative dress designers were inspired by Picasso (I think the inspiration flowed the other way) but he did describe this dress well, "A kind of 3D, silk-swathing puzzle." It is a 1920 design by Madeleine Vionnet.

Madeleine wasn't big on colour, as you can see in these ecru and pink dresses, in fact they are all skin-like in colour. Colour would have been a distraction from the brilliance of these designs. What was important to her was the cut and how the cloth related to the body.

The detailing on this sleeve is exciting in an understated way: threading, tying, hanging, wrapping, joining with faggoting, gathering - all on this quiet, elegant sleeve.

Another Madeleine Vionnet (1938) garment speaks of utter simplicity while it drapes the body with such complexity. All without the help of Lycra or Spandex. Pure genius.

Art Deco Art on the Figure

Here are some more luscious garments from that MOMA book I previously posted images of.

In 1927, an unknown designer has appliqued an abstract floral design on a 2 piece garment.

Yes, it does look 60s ish because that's when there was an Art Deco revival.

Mariska Karasz's 1927 appliqued silk jacket would be misinterpreted if thought to be inspired by Matisse's cutouts. Matisse didn't start doing his cutouts until he became ill  and he first published them in 1947. It is now understood how much textiles influenced Matisse's work so could it be he was inspired by Mariska's work? His mother made fashion garments. However, it is said, both Matisse and Mariska looked to folk costume embroideries for inspiration.

Jean Lanvin's wonderful 1927 evening coat of black cotton velveteen is embroidered with white wool. The radiating energy of the sun burst motif is so Art Deco.

Madeleine Vionnet and Art Deco

A friend showed me this very interesting book. Its main argument is that Art Deco fashion was greatly influenced by Cubism. I found the argument contrived and not at all convincing but it didn't stop me enjoying the wonderful images of Art Deco style garments.

One of my favourite designers in the book is Madeleine Vionnet. She was known for her great skill in working with fabric on the bias. In this 1932 dress step-shaped, bias-cut panels make a sheath that skims the body. So revolutionary!

This 1929 silk wedding dress looks as though it was made from a large leaf.

It is so elegant with its 7 foot train.

Art Deco

This semester I am doing the Art History: 20th & 21st Century module with the JC School of Textile Arts. I have chosen to study the Art Deco Movement, which happened between the world wars, 1920 to 1940. It is proving to be a most interesting period to study.

Since the summer I have been collecting images of all things Deco and have built up quite a collection I have been able to use in my assignments.

This silk georgette dress, 1920, was in the summer exhibition in the National Costume Museum in Winnipeg.

While in Wolfville, Nova Scotia I recognised their Art Deco style cinema. Like so many cities and towns across North America, in fact around the world, cinemas were built in the new style to be able to house the new popular form of entertainment.

Art Deco has shown up in the most unexpected places. In an earlier post I showed this Art Deco treasure stored in a woolen factory behind bales of wool, in New Brunswick.

Know as a total style, the Art Deco aesthetic was applied to literally everything, from flour sifters to car hood/bonnet ornaments, which meant everyone who had even a little money to spend could participate in the movement and be seen as modern. Finally art/craft/design came out of museums into people's daily lives and wasn't elitist.
Three cheers for Art Deco.

Pumpkin Art, Wolfville, Nova Scotia

While we were in Wolfville, Nova Scotia, we went to the Saturday market. Remember this is the second town in North America to apply to the Italian organisation for 'Slow City' status. Part of the idea is to encourage residents to live off food they produce themselves. Surplus food and products are sold at the weekly market. Consumers are encouraged to preserve, can, bottle and store food for the winter months.

The market this day had a competition for the stall owners. They were to decorate pumpkins. We, the shoppers, were given ballot forms where we could record our favourite pumpkins. And there were prizes.

This one nearly got my vote. It is called 'Hen Art' and was made by the vegetable store owner's hens, while the pumpkin was growing.

I think that qualifies as performance art.

The one I ended up voting for was a rather plain looking pumpkin called 'Pumpkin Pi'. You guessed it, a couple of students ( I forget to even notice what they were selling) drew with a red Sharpie the formula for pi around the pumpkin. I thought that was clever.

More Architecture in Yarmouth

Here are some more images of the outstanding, well preserved architecture to be found in Yarmouth.

It is unusual to find in a relatively small place such a wide range of styles within a few blocks of each other.

One of the explanations is many of the houses were built by wealthy sea captains who were inspired by what they saw in their ports of call.

The quality of construction and the size of the houses reflects the powerful position of Yarmouth on the sea trade routes in the hey day of sail.

Architectural Feast - Yarmouth

When in Nova Scotia, any easy way to get a taste of the range of architectural styles to be found in the province is to visit Yarmouth. What a feast.

The information bureau puts out a great self-guided, walking tour brochure.

Ron and I set off on the tour once the soft late afternoon light was creating enough shadows to highlight the architectural details. We took a photo of the paragraph in the brochure before taking photos of the building so I have a little bit of information about each place as a reference to begin further study.

For those of you interested in Canadian architecture, there is an excellent book that focuses on what can be found in Nova Scotia.

Penny, Allen, 'Houses of Nova Scotia An illustrated guide to architectural style recognition', co-published by Formac Publishing Company and The Nova Scotia Museum, Halifax, 1989.

I use architecture as a resource in my art work. I see buildings as portals into the social history of the time. Acting as a detective and noticing the details, talking to the owners, and tracking down primary resources such as newspapers and diaries in local archives can build up wonderful stories to share through my work.